ADULTS  IN  THE 
SUNDAY  SCHOOL 


WILLIAM   SHERMAN  BOVARD 


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BV  1550  .B6 

Bovard,  William  Sherman, 

1864- 
Adults  in  the  Sunday  school 


ADULTS  IN  THE 
SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

A  FIELD  AND  A  FORCE 


By 

WILLIAM  SHERMAN  BOVARD 

Superintendent,  Adult  Department  of  the  Board  of  Sunday  Schools  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church 


THE  ABINGDON  PRESS 

NEW  YORK  CINCINNATI 


Copyright,   1917,  by 
WILLIAM  SHERMAN  BOVARD 


TO 

MY  WIFE,  WHOSE  SYMPATHETIC 
INTEREST  IN  MY  MINISTRY  HAS 
GIVEN  ME  COURAGE  AND  HOPE. 


CONTENTS 

Chapter 

Introduction g 

Preface to 

I.   The  Adult  Awakening 15 

II.  Adults  in  the  Sunday  School 29 

III.  Some  Characteristics  of  Adult  Life 39 

IV.  The  Organized  Bible  Class 55 

V.   Maintaining  Class  Interest 67 

VI.   What  Adult  Bible  Classes  Should  Study.     79 

VII.   The  Teacher  and  Teaching  Methods..  .     89 

VIII.   A  Program  of  Service IO3 

IX.   The  Bible  Class  a  Brotherhood 121 

X.   Recruiting  for  the  Kingdom 131 

XI.   Federation j43 

XII.   The  Adult  Bible  Class  in  the  Country 

Sunday  School I59 

XIII.  Testing  the  Bible  Class  for  Efficiency. .   175 

XIV.  The  Home  Department 187 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Adult    Exhibit    at    the    General    Conference, 

Saratoga,  May,  1916 Frontispiece 

Christian  Culture  Class,  First  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Sunday  School,  Aurora,  Illinois.  .  .  . 

Facing  page     62 

Circles  of  Service 109 

The    Brotherhood    Bible    Class,   Queen    Anne 

Church,  Seattle,  Washington.  .Facing page  126 

Firemen's  Class,  German  Methodist  Episcopal 

Church,  Marietta,  Ohio Facing  page  190 


INTRODUCTION 

The  organized  Adult  Bible  Class  movement 
is  of  recent  origin  and  has  had  a  phenomenal 
growth.  All  such  movements  are  in  danger 
of  majoring  in  features  that  are  as  superficial 
as  they  are  spectacular. 

The  message  of  this  book  strengthens  the 
conviction  of  the  reader  that  the  Adult  Bible 
Class  movement  in  the  modern  Sunday  school 
has  in  it  the  elements  of  permanency.  It  is 
the  natural  outworking  of  the  prevailing  re- 
ligious emphasis  of  recent  years. 

The  spirit  and  truth  of  the  Scriptures  have 
won  a  victory  over  literalism  and  traditional- 
ism. If  the  Bible  is  to  make  its  contribution 
to  Christian  character  and  to  social  redemption, 
it  must  be  studied  eagerly  and  regularly  by 
the  people  who  are  mainly  responsible  for  the 
policies  of  the  outstanding  institutions  of  our 
civilization.  It  is  no  insignificant  matter  that 
millions  of  men  and  women  are  organized  into 
groups  for  the  study  of  the  Bible  and  indi- 
vidual and  social  life  problems. 

9 


INTRODUCTION 

The  conception  of  the  Christian  life  set 
forth  in  the  pages  of  this  book  is  well  expressed 
by  the  author's  phrase  "naturaHzing  religion." 
The  day  of  a  selfish  asceticism  has  passed. 
Religion  belongs  with  life,  with  all  of  life. 
Its  distinguishing  marks  must  be  found  in 
character  and  conduct  in  the  practical  affairs 
of  life  rather  than  in  mere  forms  and  ceremonies. 
One  can  hardly  overestimate  the  value  that 
is  accruing  to  the  popular  conception  of  re- 
ligion through  the  influence  of  the  Sunday 
school  upon  adult  life. 

While  the  purpose  of  this  book  is  to  con- 
nect Adult  Bible  Class  workers  with  the  per- 
manent values  and  the  commanding  oppor- 
tunities of  their  work,  it  also  aims  to  offer 
well-tested  methods  in  class  organization, 
practical  suggestions  as  to  the  material  and 
methods  of  teaching,  and  a  program  of  serv- 
ice so  true  to  the  nature  of  the  organization 
and  so  varied  in  its  possibilities  that  any  Bible 
Class  in  the  country  or  in  the  city  may  find 
guidance. 

Although  the  work  deals  with  all  kinds  of 
adult   classes,   it   has   been   written   with   the 
man  power  of  the  church  particularly  in  mind. 
It  is  in  a  real  sense  a  man's  book. 
10 


INTRODUCTION 

The  limited  literature  now  available  on  the 
Adult  Bible  Class  work  has  received  an  im- 
portant reenforcement  in  this  timely  message. 

Edgar  Blake. 

Chicago,  Illinois. 


11 


PREFACE 

One  of  the  most  striking  features  of  the 
modern  Sunday  school  is  the  attendance  of 
so  many  adults.  Among  these  may  be  noticed 
an  ever-increasing  number  of  men. 

This  larger  number  of  adults  represents  an 
enormous  power.  To  adjust  it  to  the  program 
of  the  Sunday  school  and  church,  to  organize 
it  for  worthy  tasks,  and  to  properly  direct  its 
energy,  tests  the  vision  and  administrative 
ability  of  the  pastor  and  his  oflScial  advisers. 

It  is  the  aim  of  the  author  in  the  chapters 
that  follow  to  discuss  the  main  features  of 
the  Adult  Bible  Class  movement,  and  to 
point  out  some  ways  and  means  for  utilizing 
the  splendid  resources  of  adult  life  for  the 
kingdom  of  God.  The  author  shares  the  grow- 
ing conviction  in  the  church  that  the  Sunday 
school  is  peculiarly  adapted  to  lead  the  church 
in  the  task  of  relating  the  unenlisted  adults 
to  the  benefits  and  opportunities  of  religion. 
He  offers  this  discussion  as  a  contribution  to 
this  end.  His  official  relation  to  the  Adult 
13 


PREFACE 

Bible  Class  movement  for  several  years  past 
has  given  him  an  exceptional  opportunity  to 
study  the  movement  at  first  hand  and  over 
a  widely  extended  field.  How  well  the  oppor- 
tunity has  been  improved  will  be  indicated 
by  the  pages  that  follow. 

The  author  desires  to  acknowledge  his  in- 
debtedness to  Dr.  Edgar  Blake,  corresponding 
secretary  of  the  Board  of  Sunday  Schools, 
Dr.  Henry  H.  Meyer,  editor  of  Sunday  School 
Publications,  and  their  associates  for  encour- 
agement and  helpful  suggestions. 

W.  S.  B. 

Chicago,  Illinois,  March  1,  1917. 


14 


CHAPTER  I 

The  Bible,  the  greatest  book  i^  the  world;  to 
teach  it,  the  noblest  service;  to  live  it,  a  conquering 
power. 

— Anonymous, 

The  worst  disloyalty  to  the  past  is  to  mistake 
it  for  the  future,  and  to  think  of  God  as  exhaust- 
ing himself  in  the  achievements  of  the  past. 

— Robert  E,  Speer. 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  ADULT  AWAKENING 

Only  in  very  recent  years  have  the  laymen 
come  to  a  consciousness  of  their  indispensable 
worth  to  the  church.  They  decline  to  think 
of  themselves  merely  as  sheep  to  be  fed  and 
sheared.  Their  place  in  the  church  is  exalted 
to  a  level  with  that  of  the  ministry.  They 
initiate  legislation  and  formulate  plans  and 
programs  for  church  activity.  The  most  alert 
pastors  are  seeing  that  in  their  laymen  they 
have  all  kinds  of  resources  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  the  tasks  of  the  modern  church. 
It  is  especially  gratifying  to  see  an  increasing 
number  of  men  taking  a  lively  interest  in  the 
church.  Clubs,  brotherhoods,  laymen's  asso- 
ciations, and  Bible  Classes  witness  to  a  great 
awakening  among  laymen.  Ministers  fre- 
quently comment  upon  the  growing  proportion 
of  men  in  their  congregations.  No  single  move- 
ment in  recent  years  bears  such  convincing 
testimony  to  an  adult  awakening  as  the  Organ- 
ized Adult  Bible  Class. 
17 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

In  1908  there  were  only  1,059  Adult  Classes 
enrolled  with  the  International  Sunday  School 
Association.  These  represented  34  denomina- 
tions and  included  all  North  America.  After 
eight  years  the  enrollment  of  Organized  Classes 
has  reached  60,000;  15,000  of  these  are  in  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church;  5,000  in  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South;  over  20,000 
in  the  combined  bodies  of  Methodism  in 
North  America. 

In  the  presence  of  this  tide  of  adult  life 
that  is  flowing  into  the  Sunday  schools  and 
churches  to-day  it  is  natural  to  ask.  How 
are  we  to  account  for  such  a  desirable  awak- 
ening? 

It  is  unquestionably  true  that  the  Bible 
has  a  new  interest  for  popular  thought.  It 
is  no  longer  looked  upon  as  a  book  of  magic 
with  power  to  minister  to  our  needs  simply 
by  having  it  in  the  pocket,  or  about  the  house. 
The  average  man  is  seeing  that  the  Bible  is 
a  book  of  life;  that  it  must  be  transmuted  into 
moral  and  spiritual  fiber,  and  then  translated 
to  the  world  in  terms  of  life  and  conduct. 
Such  a  practical  use  of  the  Bible  calls  for 
study — ^frank,  fearless,  eager  study. 

Intelligent  men  will  not  try  to  feed  their 
18 


THE  ADULT  AWAKENING 

spiritual  hunger  with  emotional  rhapsodies 
about  the  Bible.  They  know  that  the  Bible 
was  never  intended  to  be  an  object  of  worship. 
They  have  learned  that  the  Bible  dreads 
nothing  so  much  as  to  be  let  alone.  It  does 
not  ask  for  an  ecclesiastical  bodyguard.  It 
wants  to  have  a  fair  chance  at  life.  It  craves 
discriminating  study.  The  real  friends  of  the 
Bible  are  those  who  care  more  for  the  con- 
scious fellowship  of  Him  whose  life  and  teach- 
ing give  perennial  worth  to  the  Bible  than 
they  care  for  any  defense  of  any  particular 
theory  of  biblical  inspiration. 

One  Bible  Class  of  business  men,  which  has 
grown  to  include  several  hundred  members, 
began  with  a  small  group  of  earnest  men  who 
were  impressed  by  the  fact  that  the  Bible  is 
the  most  popular  book  in  the  world,  and  the 
most  potent  factor  in  the  world's  civilization, 
and  yet  they  were  conscious  that  it  was  not 
a  vital  factor  in  their  own  life  and  conduct. 
They  organized  the  Bible  Class  to  find  the 
life-giving  truth  that  makes  the  Bible  so  in- 
dispensable to  every  age. 

Dr.  Frank  Ballard  in  his  recent  Fernley 
Lecture  on  Christian  Reality  in  Modern  Light 
quotes  the  following  from  Dr.  W.  N.  Clarke's 
19 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

report  of  a  sermon  he  heard  on  "The  Impossi- 
bility of  Maintaining  a  Satisfactory  Adult 
Religious  Life  on  the  Basis  of  Ideas  Received 
in  Childhood":  "You  went  out  from  the 
Sunday  schools  in  your  teens  with  such  ideas 
of  God  and  the  Bible  as  you  had  then  been 
able  to  receive,  and  you  have  been  living  your 
religious  life  upon  them  ever  since.  In  the 
world's  work  you  have  bent  your  powers  to 
large  undertakings,  and  have  grappled  with 
the  enterprises  of  adult  humanity.  But  upon 
the  Bible  and  the  thought  of  God  you  have 
never  made  strenuous  exercise  of  your  maturer 
faculties;  you  have  never  done  man's  work 
in  seeking  a  more  adequate  knowledge  of 
these  realities,  but  have  tried  to  live  along 
nourished  by  no  larger  or  richer  conceptions 
than  you  made  your  own  when  your  powers 
were  those  of  children.  No  wonder  that  your 
adult  minds  cannot  more  than  half  believe  the 
Bible  and  the  God  of  your  infancy;  no  wonder 
that  your  religious  life  is  narrow  and  poor, 
your  minds  are  perplexed  by  the  hard  ques- 
tions of  the  day,  and  your  energies  are  re- 
pressed or  misdirected.  You  need  to  put  away 
childish  things  and  make  your  own  the  Bible 
and  the  God  of  men."  Something  like  a 
^0 


THE  ADULT  AWAKENING 

response  to  this  same  appeal  is  seen  in   the 
adult  awakening  of  our  day. 

Another  emphasis  in  the  appeal  of  religion 
to-day  that  wins  the  attention  of  strong  men 
is  the  stress  put  upon  character  and  life  rather 
than  upon  destiny  as  the  chief  concern  of 
religion.  Character  first,  then  destiny.  Des- 
tiny depends  upon  character,  and  character 
is  not  conferred  in  a  moment,  in  the  twinkling 
of  an  eye;  it  must  be  achieved  by  divine  and 
human  cooperation.  Salvation  through  fellow- 
ship with  Christ  concerns  more  than  the  soul 
hereafter,  it  has  to  do  with  the  life  here  and 
now.  Men  are  urged  to  become  Christians, 
not  primarily  to  escape  future  torment  or  to 
win  future  reward,  but  in  order  to  be  the  kind 
of  men  they  ought  to  be  in  this  world  of  need. 
The  claims  of  Christ  are  insistent,  for  every 
day  lived  out  of  harmony  with  him  is  lost  be- 
yond recall.  Every  man's  personality  repre- 
sents moral  and  spiritual  resources  which  can 
be  developed  and  enriched  only  by  entering 
into  vital  relationship  with  Christ.  The  possi- 
bilities of  Christian  character  afford  a  strong 
appeal  to  thoughtful  persons. 

Again,  many  people  who  had  lost  interest 
in  the  church  because  it  seemed  to  them  that 
21 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

religion  was  not  being  expressed  in  service  to 
mankind,  but  was  being  confined  largely  to 
forms  of  worship  and  self-culture,  are  renewing 
their  allegiance  to  the  church  because  the  mes- 
sage of  our  day  insists  that  the  benefits  of 
worship  must  be  invested  in  service.  Otherwise 
religion  would  be  guilty  of  being  the  worst 
kind  of  selfishness.  Jesus  said,  "Ye  are  the 
light  of  the  world,"  but  he  made  it  quite  plain 
that  the  place  for  the  light  to  shine  is  where 
it  would  be  dark  but  for  that  light.  He  said, 
"Ye  are  the  salt  of  the  earth,"  but  the  place 
for  salt  is  not  in  a  barrel  in  the  storeroom, 
but  next  to  that  which  will  spoil  if  not  salted. 
It  is  hard  on  the  salt,  but  it  is  its  business  to 
lose  its  life  in  saving  something.  Our  spiritual- 
ity must  likewise  be  brought  to  bear  upon 
the  personal  and  social  problems  of  others  if 
we  are  to  escape  the  curse  of  selfishness  in 
religion.  There  is  a  tendency  to  pit  worship 
activities  over  against  service  activities  as  if 
we  must  choose  one  or  the  other.  They  belong 
together.  "What  God  hath  joined  together 
let  no  man  put  asunder."  The  great  command- 
ment is  two-sided,  but  not  divisible.  "Thou 
shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart, 
and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  strength, 
22 


THE  ADULT  AWAKENING 

and  with  all  thy  mind;  and  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself."  The  church  to-day  must  be  a  com- 
munity force.  She  cannot  satisfy  her  con- 
science if  she  undertakes  nothing  more  than 
to  keep  worship  alive.  She  must  lead  all  the 
agencies  that  seek  to  establish  the  rule  of  God 
in  all  human  affairs. 

Another  present-day  insight  should  be  men- 
tioned as  holding  a  reason  for  the  awakening 
of  men  to  the  claims  of  religion.  In  dealing 
with  human  life  we  are  recognizing  its  unitary 
nature.  Life  cannot  be  divided  into  compart- 
ments. It  is  manifold,  but  each  interest  is 
inseparably  joined  to  all  the  others.  Physical 
well-being  is  bound  up  with  spiritual  benefits; 
social  and  recreational  interests  are  concerns 
of  religion.  We  must  deal  with  the  whole  of 
life  or  we  do  not  properly  deal  with  any  of  it. 
The  field  for  the  redemptive  power  of  religion 
is  the  total  life  of  human  society.  Such  a 
conception  of  life  and  religion  opens  the  way 
for  a  church  program  that  cannot  fail  to  chal- 
lenge the  most  enterprising  men  and  women 
of  every  community.  Many  of  these  talented 
people  have  had  a  notion  that  the  church  stood 
for  a  very  narrow  and  extremely  individualistic 
program.  It  has  not  commanded  their  interest. 
^3 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

But  when  they  come  to  understand  that  the 
church  is  concerned  with  the  fight  against 
destructive  diseases,  preventable  poverty;  that 
the  recreational  hfe  and  social  life  of  youth 
is  a  legitimate  objective  for  church  activity; 
that  the  acute  and  insistent  problems  of  modern 
industry  represent  an  opportunity  for  Christian 
statesmanship,  they  have  hospitality  of  mind 
for  the  church.  The  church,  with  a  program 
that  includes  the  saving  of  the  whole  of  life 
everywhere,  enters  the  community  with  so 
many  points  of  contact  that  it  soon  fills  the 
consciousness  of  the  community.  It  becomes 
the  center  of  interest  as  it  should  be.  Tides  of 
life  flow  toward  it  for  strength  and  from  it 
for  service. 

Again,  it  seems  clear  that  the  church  is 
making  one  of  her  most  effective  appeals  to 
the  strong  men  of  the  community  by  recog- 
nizing her  allies  and  freely  giving  them  credit 
for  helping  rather  than  hindering  the  common 
cause  of  righteousness.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
credit  education,  sanitation,  recreation,  legis- 
lation, and  philanthropy  with  all  the  regen- 
erative power  and  resources  needed  by  the 
race — ^thus  ruling  out  the  necessity  of  the  dis- 
tinct spiritual  service  of  the  church — in  order 
24i 


THE  ADULT  AWAKENING 

to  admit  all  these  forms  of  service  among  tie 
helpers  of  religion. 

The  church  as  the  outstanding  exponent  of 
religion  appears  to  better  advantage  in  a  world 
so  full  of  need  when  she  welcomes  every  agency 
that  enters  the  conflict  on  the  side  of  truth 
and  justice  as  an  ally.  A  serene  confidence 
in  the  uniqueness  of  her  mission,  and  the  deeper 
satisfaction  of  her  ministry  should  always 
prompt  the  church  to  take  a  magnanimous  and 
sympathetic  attitude  toward  all  expressions  of 
interest  in  the  conservation  and  enlargement 
of  human  values.  When  the  church  goes  into 
the  old  world,  for  example,  where  ancient  re- 
ligions have  been  exploiting  human  need  through 
weary  centuries,  it  is  no  longer  her  policy  to 
regard  everything  in  the  ethnic  religions  as 
utterly  worthless.  She  uses  discrimination  and 
shows  a  spirit  of  fair  consideration  toward  every 
philosophy  or  practice  that  has  any  of  the 
fruits  of  the  Spirit  to  its  credit.  Joseph  Cook 
gave  utterance  to  this  spirit  of  hospitality 
when  in  one  of  his  flights  of  eloquence  he 
called  the  great  ethnic  religions  before  him 
and  pronounced  each  one  in  some  measure 
efficient,  and  then  he  turned  to  Christianity 
and  with  fine  discrimination  pronounced  it  the 
S5 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

only  sufficient  religion  for  the  regeneration  of 
the  world. 

We  must  freely  admit  that  society  abounds 
in  organizations  and  agencies  to-day  that  are 
not  included  within  the  organization  of  the 
church.  They  are  partial  and  superficial  in 
their  contributions  to  human  need.  Their 
advocates  sometimes  make  the  mistake  of 
regarding  them  as  sufficient  substitutes  for 
the  church.  They  are  not  that,  but  their  ser- 
vice is  praiseworthy  as  far  as  it  goes.  It  is 
within  the  province  of  the  church  to  profit 
by  the  services  of  such  allies  in  the  varied  field 
of  human  need.  Take,  for  example,  the  army 
of  trained  scientists  engaged  in  painstaking 
research,  seeking  remedies  for  destructive  dis- 
eases. The  results  have  already  saved  for  the 
church  human  life  and  talent  which  she  must 
have  if  she  is  to  wih  the  world  to  Christ.  All 
the  agencies  that  are  busy  conserving  human 
life  are  surely  working  in  harmony  with  the 
church  that  understands  her  total  task.  Again, 
there  are  many  educational  enterprises  inde- 
pendent of  the  church  as  to  authority,  but  in 
perfect  harmony  with  her  in  the  common  fight 
against  ignorance  and  superstition.  The  un- 
afraid church  is  calling  for  trained  intellects, 
26 


THE  ADULT  AWAKENING 

enriched  personalities.  God  undoubtedly  can 
take  the  weak  things  with  which  to  confound 
the  mighty,  but  how  he  must  long  for  the 
service  of  the  best  equipped  brains  possible, 
in  the  work  of  establishing  his  kingdom  here 
in  the  earth. 

The  church  as  the  custodian  of  the  appro- 
priating, vitalizing  and  spiritualizing  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ  has  the  right  of  "eminent  domain" 
to  all  the  products  of  human  endeavor.  None 
of  the  allied  institutions  or  organizations  in 
the  social  order  can  contribute  the  eternal 
element  that  gives  completeness  and  perma- 
nence to  their  work.  The  church  alone  has 
committed  to  her  the  secret  by  which  temporal 
values  may  be  carried  up  into  the  eternal. 

This  is  no  time  for  an  ascetic,  exclusive 
church,  forever  on  the  defensive,  frightened  at 
the  danger  of  pollution  by  contact  with  the 
reeking  world.  The  church  that  would  save 
its  life  by  aloofness  from  the  world  shall  surely 
lose  it;  but  the  church  that  counts  no  part  of 
its  traditions  or  organization  too  sacred  to  risk 
in  the  strenuous  service  of  mixing  the  leaven 
of  Christian  love  all  through  the  conflicting, 
clashing  life  of  the  modern  world  will  save  its 
own  life  by  mastering  all  of  life. 

n 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

It  is  this  fearless  assumption  of  her  rightful 
leadership  in  present-day  movements  for  hu- 
man redemption,  that  gives  the  church  her 
increasing  command  of  the  strong  men  of  our 
day. 

QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  Is  the  awakening  of  adults  general? 

2.  How   should   the   average   man   regard   the 

Bible? 

3.  What   is   the   highest   motive   for   being    a 

Christian? 

4.  How  are  worship  to  God  and  service  to  man 

related? 

5.  In  what  sense  must  the  whole  of  life  be 

served  by  religion? 

6.  What  is  meant  by  "Allies  of  the  Church'*? 


S8 


CHAPTER  II 

These  were  more  noble  than  those  in  Thessalonica, 
in  that  they  received  the  word  with  all  readiness 
of  mind,  and  searched  the  scriptures  daily,  whether 
those  things  were  so.  Therefore  many  of  them 
helieved— Acts  17,  11,  12, 


CHAPTER  II 
ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

The  Sunday  school  is  well  adapted  to  be 
the  agency  through  which  the  awakened  adults 
shall  express  their  new  religious  interest.  More 
and  more  the  Sunday  school  is  becoming  a 
real  educational  institution.  Its  determining 
factor  is  the  life  to  be  served.  That  life  comes 
to  it  clearly  graded,  with  graded  needs.  The 
Sunday  school  architecture,  organization,  equip- 
ment, and  lesson  material  are  all  being  deter- 
mined by  the  manifold  and  graded  needs  of 
human  life. 

The  assembly  type  of  Sunday  school  is  pass- 
ing. It  never  has  been  a  success  as  a  school. 
Its  tenacious  devotion  to  enthusiasm  and  uni- 
formity as  its  chief  ends  has  beguiled  it  into  a 
sacrifice  of  educational  ideals  and  methods. 
The  adult  generation  to-day  is  the  product 
of  that  type  of  Sunday  school.  It  is  no  secret 
that  this  generation  is  innocent  of  any  ex- 
tensive or  systematic  knowledge  of  the  Bible. 
As  it  comes  back  to  the  Sunday  school  in 
SI 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

Adult  Classes  let  us  see  to  it  that  a  real  educa- 
tional opportunity  is  afforded  it. 

The  representative  character  of  the  adults 
who  come  to  Sunday  school  makes  them  an 
opportunity  of  unusual  promise.  They  come 
as  the  home-builders  and  sustainers,  the  church 
supporters,  the  business  directors,  and  the  sub- 
stantial citizens.  They  represent  the  great 
cardinal  institutions  of  our  civilization.  The 
service  the  Sunday  school  may  render  these 
adults  affects  for  good  the  home,  the  church, 
business,  and  citizenship.  We  must  not  be 
content  with  superficial  service.  The  Sunday 
school  must  so  provide  for  the  instruction  and 
inspiration  of  these  men  and  women  that  every 
institution  through  which  they  express  them- 
selves during  life  will  be  modified  by  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Sunday  school. 

The  modern  Sunday  school  is  adjusting  its 
organization  and  its  program  to  the  well-tested 
educational  principle,  that  we  learn  by  doing. 
This  principle  calls  upon  the  Sunday  school 
to  organize  its  forces  for  the  practice  of  the 
truth  it  studies.  This  affords  another  reason 
for  the  Organized  Adult  Bible  Classes  in  the 
Sunday  school.  This  adult  life  represents 
incalculable  power  for  service.  The  Sunday 
32 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

school  session  should  be  a  time  for  instruction 
in  the  Christian  message  and  in  the  nature 
of  the  needs  to  be  met  by  it.  The  week  fol- 
lowing should  be  marked  by  some  definite 
efforts  to  practice  the  truth  studied  on  Sun- 
day. 

There  are  indications  that  some  Sunday 
school  boards  have  not  readily  appreciated  the 
possibilities  of  the  large  adult  division.  In- 
stead of  adjusting  their  administration  to  the 
enlarged  Sunday  school,  they  have  left  the 
Adult  Classes  to  work  out  their  own  salvation. 
Instead  of  welcoming  the  adults  as  a  new  force 
come  to  serve,  they  have  accepted  any  service 
the  adults  may  have  rendered  as  a  pleasant 
surprise. 

To  what  extent  should  the  Organized  Classes 
in  the  Sunday  school  adjust  their  programs  of 
service  to  the  program  of  the  school  as  a  whole? 
Judging  from  the  large  number  of  annual 
reports  received  from  Adult  Classes,  the  present 
practice  is  for  the  Organized  Classes  to  find 
their  own  fields  for  service  and  engage  in  such 
activities  as  appeal  to  them  without  particular 
reference  to  what  other  agencies  of  the  church 
may  be  doing.  The  number  of  Sunday  schools 
having  a  correlated  program  of  service  activ- 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

ities  is  probably  very  small.  Unquestionably 
the  service  activities  of  the  Sunday  school 
should  be  graded  after  the  same  method  used 
in  grading  the  pupils  and  the  lesson  material. 
This,  however,  does  not  prevent  the  Sunday 
School  Board  from  having  general  super- 
vision over  the  service  which  is  being  rendered 
by  the  separate  departments  of  the  school. 

The  Organized  Classes  should  be  given  large 
freedom  in  planning  and  carrying  out  service 
within  the  life  of  the  church  and  in  the  commu- 
nity. They  represent  organized  forces  so  dis- 
tinct that  the  General  Benevolent  Boards  may 
call  upon  them  directly  for  cooperation  in  the 
world  enterprises.  The  Sunday  School  Board 
should  know  about  and  approve  the  work 
which  the  Organized  Classes  are  doing. 

The  attitude  of  half-hearted  interest  on  the 
part  of  the  Sunday  school  authorities  must 
be  replaced  by  a  serious  purpose  to  make  the 
adult  division  of  the  Sunday  school  a  real 
asset  rather  than  a  liability.  The  adults  are 
in  the  Sunday  school  to  serve.  Their  first 
concern  must  be  the  welfare  of  the  children 
and  youth.  Instead  of  appropriating  all  the 
good  meeting  places  for  their  own  classes,  they 
should  see  to  it  that  well  equipped  quarters 
34 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

are  provided  for  the  children.  If  church 
improvements  are  required  in  order  to  provide 
adequately  for  the  Sunday  school,  the  adults 
should  lead  in  making  the  improvement. 

What  shall  be  done  with  the  collections  taken 
in  the  Organized  Classes?  If  they  are  all 
turned  into  the  treasury  of  the  school,  what 
provision  shall  be  made  for  meeting  the  expenses 
of  such  services  as  the  Organized  Class  should 
perform  .f^  The  very  life  of  the  class  demands 
activities  of  service  in  its  organized  capacity. 
The  class  will  need  to  expend  considerable 
money  in  making  full  proof  of  its  ministry. 

Either  the  Sunday  School  Board  should 
permit  the  Organized  Classes  to  retain  a  cer- 
tain per  cent  of  their  collections,  or  a  definite 
appropriation  should  be  made  for  the  work  of 
the  Adult  Classes  or  department.  Where  the 
class  retains  a  portion  of  its  collections,  or 
where  class  funds  are  raised  independently  of 
the  Sunday  collections,  the  class  should  report 
its  receipts  and  expenditures  to  the  regular 
meeting  of  the  Sunday  School  Board.  Great 
care  should  be  taken,  even  in  the  matter  of 
finance,  to  promote  unity  and  harmony  of 
administration.  It  is  quite  possible  that  the 
entire  matter  of  Sunday  school  finance  will 
35 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

undergo  radical  changes  in  method,  as  the 
movement  for  church  efficiency  progresses. 
Already  some  schools  and  churches  are  operat- 
ing under  a  common  budget,  raised  by  the 
duplex  envelope  system,  and  report  that  the 
method  works  well. 

Unquestionably,  the  interest  of  adults  in  the 
Sunday  school  helps  to  hold  the  interest  of 
children  and  young  people.  The  early  teen- 
age boys,  beginning  to  be  conscious  of  budding 
manhood,  are  liable  to  regard  the  Sunday 
school  as  too  juvenile  for  them.  The  fact  that 
their  fathers  and  older  brothers  attend  the 
Sunday  school  and  show  great  interest  in  it 
is  a  most  potent  influence  in  holding  these 
active  boys  to  the  school.  The  same  is  true 
respecting  the  influence  of  the  women  upon 
the  girls.  This  service  is  not,  however,  the 
main  advantage  of  having  the  adults  in  the 
Sunday  school.  In  every  community,  whether 
in  the  city  or  in  the  open  country,  there  are 
community  needs  crying  out  for  relief.  The 
community  has  a  right  to  look  hopefully  to 
the  church  for  leadership  in  responding  to 
these  needs.  The  church  has  failed  as  a  com- 
munity force  many  times  because  her  adult 
life  was  not  available.  The  adults  were  not 
36 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

available  because  they  were  not  organized  for 
such  opportunities. 

The  church  will  never  solve  the  city  problem 
until  she  secures  the  help  of  the  men  who  make 
the  city  problem.  The  commercial  and  in- 
dustrial leaders,  who  with  sublime  audacity 
have  built  up  the  great  congested  centers,  must 
put  their  resources  and  services  at  the  disposal 
of  the  churches,  if  the  cities  are  to  be  moralized 
and  Christianized.  Likewise  the  elusive  rural 
problem  will  only  be  run  to  earth  and  effec- 
tively dealt  with  when  it  becomes  the  business 
of  the  people  whose  welfare  constitutes  the 
problem.  The  country  church  must  have 
country  leadership. 

In  a  later  chapter  I  hope  to  offer  a  sug- 
gestive program  for  worth  while  service  by  the 
Organized  Adult  Bible  Classes.  As  the  years 
pass  it  will  become  increasingly  clear  that  the 
provision  of  the  Sunday  school  for  adult  mem- 
bership is  required  to  make  the  Sunday  school 
organization  effective.  One  of  these  days  the 
officers  of  the  Adult  Classes  will  be  the  men 
and  women  who  began  Organized  Bible  Class 
work  as  intermediates  and  continued  it  through 
the  senior  years.  After  furnishing  a  large  quota 
of  leaders  and  teachers  for  the  other  depart- 
37 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

ments  of  the  Sunday  school,  the  remainder 
will  pass  on  to  the  Adult  Classes  with  the  spirit 
and  the  experience  that  will  fit  them  to  lead 
in  the  work  of  the  Adult  Classes. 

QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  Why  should  adults  be  in  the  membership 

of  the  Sunday  school? 

2.  What  significance  is  given  adults  by  their 

representative  character? 

3.  Why  should  study  and  service  go  together? 

4.  How  should  Adult  Classes  be  governed  with 

respect  to  the  school  as  a  whole? 

5.  What  should  be  the  policy  of  Adult  Classes 

with  respect  to  offerings? 

6.  What  effect  has  the  adult  attendance  upon 

the  interest  of  the  boys  and  girls? 


38 


CHAPTER  III 

The  circle  of  the  church  ought  to  be  widened 
to  embrace  and  utiHze  the  immense  amount  of 
unconscious  and  "anonymous  reHgion"  that  exists 
outside  the  church. — Paul  Strayer. 

One  of  the  most  grievous  and  pernicious  blunders 
in  practical  religion  has  been  the  adoption  of  the 
false  antithesis  between  things  secular  and  things 
religious. — Borden  P,  Bowne, 


CHAPTER  III 

SOME  CHARACTERISTICS  OF 
ADULT  LIFE 

Nothing  is  more  elusive  to  the  student  of 
developing  human  life  than  the  dividing  line 
between  the  epochs  marking  this  development. 
Where  does  the  period  of  childhood  end  and 
that  of  youth  begin?  For  a  long  time  the 
consensus  of  opinion  among  careful  students 
was  that  the  Hue  of  separation  lay  between 
twelve  and  thirteen.  The  exceptions  observed 
became  so  numerous  that  many  began  boldly 
to  say  that  the  dividing  line  is  between  eleven 
and  twelve.  Now  the  earlier  point  seems 
to  be  quite  freely  admitted  to  be  the  truer 
guess.  Likewise  the  immediate  neighborhood 
of  twenty-one  has  been  commonly  accepted  as 
the  beginning  of  adult  life.  But  why  the 
selection  of  that  age?  Is  it  an  arbitrary  di- 
vision for  the  convenience  of  classification, 
or  does  it  mark  the  arrival  of  new  character- 
istics? Must  we  not  have  at  least  two  sets 
of  data  before  us  in  trying  to  locate  the  begin- 
41 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

ning  of  adult  life — the  facts  that  belong  to  the 
inner  life  of  thought,  feeling,  and  attitude; 
and  the  facts  that  relate  to  one's  place  and 
experience  in  the  social  life?  One  may  be  but 
a  youth  in  personal  life  and  an  adult  in  social 
relations.  Teen-age  mothers  have  not  reached 
mental  and  emotional  maturity  simply  because 
they  have  the  duties  and  cares  of  a  family 
upon  them,  nor  may  one  remain  adolescent  in 
personal  traits  simply  by  remaining  in  school 
and  keeping  away  from  the  duties  of  mature 
manhood.  Within  limitations  we  may  bound 
the  stages  of  life's  development,  but  the  lines 
are  by  no  means  straight. 

The  Sunday  School  Council  of  Evangelical 
Churches,  recently  held  in  Boston,  discussed 
this  matter  very  fully,  havuig  before  it  the 
opinions  of  a  large  number  of  educators  and 
Sunday  school  workers.  The  action  finally 
taken  by  that  body  recognized  the  need  of 
flexibihty  in  classifying  youth  at  the  beginning 
and  at  the  end  of  that  period.  The  twelfth 
year  may  be  classed  as  either  Intermediate 
or  Junior,  and  the  early  twenties  may  be  classed 
as  either  Young  People  or  Adults  in  the  de- 
partmental organization  of  a  Sunday  school. 

Keeping  the  two  types  of  data  in  mind,  we 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  ADULT  LIFE 

may  locate  the  adults  socially  by  their  respon- 
sibility in  connection  with  the  outstanding 
institutions  of  society.  They  are  the  heads 
of  famihes;  their  lives  are  dignified  by  the 
exalted  privileges  and  responsible  duties  of 
parenthood.  The  economic  problems  of  home 
support  are  insistent;  there  is  no  escape  from 
them;  to  negotiate  them  with  honor  taxes  the 
thought  power,  industry,  and  courage  of  mil- 
lions of  men  and  women  every  day.  To  pilot 
a  ship  between  Scylla  and  Charybdis  was  a 
simple  task  compared  with  the  unheralded 
commonplace  duty  of  equipping  a  home  and 
feeding  and  clothing  a  family.  No  wonder 
young  people  who  have  seemed  light  and 
frivolous  and  carefree  before  marriage,  have 
surprised  their  friends  by  a  steadiness  of 
industry  and  an  eflSciency  of  management  when 
they  have  undertaken  the  interesting  and 
taxing  duties  of  home-building.  It  should 
not  be  surprising  that  such  a  social  institution 
as  the  home  should  greatly  modify  the  per- 
sonal characteristics  and  needs  of  the  men  and 
women  who  bear  its  responsibilities.  Their 
mental  attitudes  change;  their  spiritual  hun- 
gers are  more  insistent;  their  self-sufficiency 
wanes  and  their  need  of  God  becomes  more 
43 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

real.  Alert  spiritual  advisers  will  recognize 
the  divine  relationship  of  marriage  and  parent- 
hood as  offering  unusual  opportunity  for  help- 
ing these  early  adults  to  profit  by  a  very 
definite  Christian  experience.  The  marriage 
ceremony  need  not  be  more  solemn,  but  it 
should  make  religious  values  more  real  than 
is  generally  the  case.  A  natural  religious 
exaltation  might  easily  take  place  when  a  new 
home  is  set  up  by  having  the  pastor  and  some 
intimate  friends  come  in  for  a  service  of  prayer 
and  religious  conversation.  The  less  formal 
the  service  the  longer  its  influence  will  last. 

The  christening  of  the  children  is  a  service 
full  of  possibilities  for  good  to  the  parents. 
The  good  will  not  come  so  much  from  the 
immediate  service  as  from  the  relationship  it 
estabhshes  between  the  home  and  the  church, 
the  pastor  and  the  family.  This  relationship 
properly  appreciated  and  cultivated  will  result 
in  untold  value  to  the  parents  and  to  the 
entire  family. 

As  the  home  represents  the  tenderest  ties 
of  love  and  companionship,  it  becomes  the 
scene  of  the  most  poignant  grief  and  suffocating 
sorrow  when  death  breaks  the  family  circle. 
Religion  must  be  there  at  such  a  time,  not 
44 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  ADULT  LIFE 

simply  by  the  little  black  book  with  its  solemn 
ritual,  not  mainly  with  customary  platitudes 
of  comfort,  but  rather  in  all  kinds  of  gentle 
acts  of  friendship,  the  clasped  hand,  the  sin- 
cere eye,  the  anticipated  need,  and  the  golden 
silence.  Nor  should  the  ministry  of  friendship 
relax  its  diligence  when  the  broken  family 
returns  from  the  silent  grave.  The  healing 
sunshine  of  Christian  hope,  the  courage  of 
Christian  faith,  and  the  compassion  and  sym- 
pathy of  Christian  love  must  rally  to  protect 
those  parents  from  the  invasion  of  doubt, 
bitterness,  and  despair.  They  must  be  brought 
out  among  their  friends,  they  must  be  related 
to  opportunities  for  service.  Nothing  will  so 
quickly  restore  them  as  helping  others.  Herein 
is  the  great  opportunity  of  the  Adult  Bible 
Class.  It  is  not  enough  to  pass  a  resolution 
of  sympathy  and  send  a  floral  offering.  The 
wounded  lives  must  be  restored;  neither  the 
secretary  nor  the  treasurer  can  fulfill  the  min- 
istry of  the  class  to  the  stricken  members. 

The  needs  of  adults  as  home-builders  are 
not  confined  to  the  economic  problems  and 
the  special  experiences  to  which  reference  has 
been  made.  The  continuous  task  of  training 
and  educating  the  children  is  a  constant  rev- 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

elation  of  parental  needs.  Many  parents  yield 
to  the  temptation  to  shorten  the  school  term 
of  their  children,  that  they  may  use  their 
labor  for  the  common  treasury.  In  many 
instances  no  doubt  such  expediency  is  necessary. 
More  often,  however,  persons  of  vision  and 
trusted  friendship  could  advise  and  help  per- 
plexed parents  at  this  point,  and  save  to  the 
children  the  priceless  boon  of  an  educational 
opportunity. 

Parents  with  a  keen  sense  of  responsibility 
for  their  children  often  express  painful  solicitude 
as  the  children  pass  from  childhood  to  youth. 
While  they  cannot  wish  them  to  remain  chil- 
dren always,  they  protest  that  the  cares  they 
experienced  when  their  children  were  small 
are  as  nothing  compared  with  their  concern 
for  them  as  young  people.  At  no  point  do 
parents  need  and  deserve  the  intelligent  and 
sympathetic  cooperation  of  the  leaders  of  the 
church  and  the  school  as  when  their  children 
are  unconsciously  substituting  the  community 
ties  for  the  home  ties,  when  other  personalities 
are  beginning  to  share  with  the  parents  the 
controlling  influence  in  the  lives  of  the  youth. 
The  Sunday  school  is  only  beginning  to  respond 
to  the  cry  of  overburdened  parents  at  this 
46 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  ADULT  LIFE 

critical  stage  of  life  development.  This  re- 
sponse must  not  be  confined  to  the  service 
rendered  directly  to  the  youth,  but  the  parents 
themselves  must  be  helped  to  understand  their 
own  children  in  relation  to  moral  and  spiritual 
transition  and  growth.  The  service  must  be 
one  of  cooperation  at  all  points.  Many  a  young 
man  in  whom  the  church  was  deeply  interested 
has  been  lost  to  the  kingdom  of  God  because 
the  church  did  not  include  the  parents  in  the 
service  of  religious  education.  The  present- 
day  movement  for  the  organization  of  parents' 
classes  in  the  Sunday  school  is  based  upon 
real  needs,  which  the  Sunday  school  is  well 
adapted  to  meet. 

We  may  study  to  advantage  the  needs  of 
adult  life  by  considering  the  variety  of  adult 
activities  commonly  called  "business."  So 
much  of  mature  life  is  spent  in  some  form  of 
business  that  it  would  be  strange  indeed  if 
men's  thinking  and  feeling  were  not  largely 
determined  by  their  experiences  in  business. 
What  is  the  vast  army  of  business  men  doing? 
Is  not  business  a  process  of  transmuting  lower 
values  into  higher  .^^  Raw  materials  of  low 
commercial  value  are  subjected  to  the  arts 
of  the  manufacturer  and  the  service  of  trans- 
47 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

portation  and  exchange  until  the  value  has 
been  greatly  increased.  This  bewildering  com- 
plex of  human  activity  in  the  field  of  material 
values  is  such  a  large  part  of  life  that  one  may 
well  ask  if  religion  has  not  some  vital  relation 
to  it.  There  have  been  spokesmen  for  religion 
who  have  called  the  continent  of  business  life 
secular.  Their  main  message  respecting  secular 
life  was  to  point  out  its  dangers,  its  greed  and 
graft,  and  its  materialistic  tendencies.  The 
tendency  of  such  a  disparagement  of  business 
life  has  been  to  raise  the  question  as  to  whether 
men  can  be  successful  men  of  affairs  and  at 
the  same  time  be  sincere  spiritual  church  men. 
Fortunately  for  our  day,  religious  leaders  are 
claiming  the  whole  range  of  life  as  the  legit- 
imate field  for  the  spiritualizing  service  of 
religion.  They  are  emphasizing  this  world  as 
the  field  for  religious  victory.  Individuals  are 
not  so  much  to  be  caught  up  out  of  the  world 
by  religion  as  they  are  to  devote  to  the  cause 
of  Christianizing  civilization  the  results  of  all 
their  activities. 

Economic  prosperity  is  fundamental  to  the 
triumphs  of  Christian  character  and  culture. 
No  nation  can  ever  hope  to  develop  her  charac- 
ter resources  to   the  high   degree  of   richness 

48 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  ADULT  LIFE 

and  eflSciency  that  God  has  made  possible, 
without  developing  her  material  resources  to 
their  fullest  capacity.  The  law  of  transmuta- 
tion of  values  is  not  limited  in  its  application 
to  what  we  call  material  values.  It  extends 
through  the  realm  of  character.  What  we  call 
wealth  may  be  changed  from  terms  of  money 
to  terms  of  manhood.  Investments  of  money 
in  churches  and  schools  will  issue  in  higher 
values  of  character  and  culture.  The  depend- 
ence of  cultural  institutions  upon  the  ministry 
of  money  should  not  be  regarded  as  a  regrettable 
situation,  but,  rather,  as  the  normal  way  by 
which  business  is  to  serve  the  kingdom  of  God. 
The  recognition  of  this  law  of  transmutation 
gives  a  spiritual  meaning  to  the  activities  we 
call  business;  it  exalts  and  dignifies  the  work 
among  material  things.  The  business  man 
becomes  a  partner  with  the  teacher  and  the 
preacher  in  the  common  end  of  establishing 
here  in  this  world  a  kingdom  of  Christian 
character.  The  emphasis  shifts  from  the 
relative  sacredness  of  callings  to  the  relative 
genuineness  and  spirituality  of  motives.  The 
barriers  that  separated  priest  from  people 
vanish.  The  way  is  open  for  all  men  to  be- 
come coworkers  with  God.  The  business  of 
49 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

the  church  is  no  longer  that  of  wresting  people 
out  of  their  normal  relations  to  life  but,  rather, 
teaching  them  how  to  be  truly  and  effectively 
Christian  in  these  relationships.  The  church 
never  went  into  the  world  with  so  many  points 
of  contact,  and  with  so  much  commanding 
sympathy  for  all  sorts  of  people  as  she  is  going 
in  to-day.  Her  perspective  is  truer,  and  her 
approach  is  more  human,  and  consequently 
more  divine,  than  at  any  period  of  her  won- 
derful history.  The  industrial  life,  with  its 
extremes  of  poverty  and  wealth,  its  rapid 
transitions  in  machinery  and  methods  of  organ- 
ization, represents  a  field  of  human  need  that 
tests  to  the  utmost  the  power  and  promptness 
of  the  church  in  invention  and  adaptation. 

The  relationships  and  duties  involved  in 
citizenship  also  reveal  adult  needs  that  chal- 
lenge the  church  for  help. 

There  has  been  so  much  secrecy  and  suflScient 
chicanery  in  directing  political  affairs  that  the 
church  has  usually  given  the  realm  of  politics 
a  wide  berth.  Politics  has  not  always  been  so 
considerate  of  the  church,  but  has  frequently 
sought  intimate  fellowship.  It  might  not  be 
amiss  to  suggest  that  the  surest  way  for  the 
church  to  save  herself  from  the  invasion  of 
50 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  ADULT  LIFE 

objectionable  politics  would  be  to  pursue  a 
more  vigorous  campaign  of  reform  against  the 
corrupting  political  methods  that  obtain  in  the 
affairs  of  city,  state,  and  nation.  No  concep- 
tion of  the  sanctity  of  the  church  can  be  a 
sufficient  reason  for  indifference  to  the  needs 
of  men  that  arise  because  of  their  relation  as 
citizens  to  public  affairs. 

The  attitude  of  the  church  toward  the 
duties  of  public  officials  should  be  so  appre- 
ciative that  the  best  men  in  the  community 
would  not  shrink  from  assuming  such  tasks. 
It  too  often  happens  that  such  a  reproach 
rests  upon  office-holding  in  public  life  that  a 
very  great  advantage  is  given  to  scheming, 
selfish  men,  who  are  not  sensitive  to  criticism 
of  their  motives.  The  church  should  strive 
to  exalt  the  service  of  public  men  above  the 
lowlands  of  greed  and  graft.  Whenever  a  man 
of  high  ideals  and  honest  purpose  assumes  a 
place  of  public  trust  he  should  be  made  to 
know  that  the  sympathy  and  confidence  of 
the  advocates  of  religion  are  his.  Every  public 
official  should  be  made  to  know  that  his  adminis- 
tration is  not  a  matter  of  indifference  to  church 
people.  The  church  is  supposed  to  deal  chiefly 
in  light.  That  light  should  always  be  illu- 
51 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

minating,  often  searching,  and  sometimes 
scorching.  It  will  always  have  healing  in  its 
rays. 

The  church  is  making  unmistakable  progress 
in  meeting  the  needs  of  adults  in  the  matter 
of  citizenship,  by  bringing  them  together  for 
the  consideration  of  civic  problems  in  the 
light  of  Christian  truth;  by  organizing  them  to 
do  certain  definite  things  in  the  way  of  applied 
Christianity.  The  Adult  Bible  Class  move- 
ment is  making  for  a  better  understanding 
between  the  nonchurchgoing  men  and  those 
who  have  grown  up  in  Christian  fellowship. 
Association  of  these  fellow  citizens  in  the 
atmosphere  of  the  church  for  frank  discussion 
of  the  common  problems  of  citizenship  cannot 
fail  to  make  for  mutual  understanding  and 
practical  cooperation. 

The  rapidity  and  thoroughness  with  which 
this  country  is  voting  out  the  saloon  makes 
even  more  insistent  than  ever  the  call  to 
the  church  to  go  out  with  unaffected  human 
touch  and  bring  the  former  saloon  frequenters 
into  a  sympathetic,  hospitable  fellowship  that 
they  never  dreamed  the  church  could  offer. 
As  a  State  senator  in  a  Western  State  said  in 
speaking   of   these   outside   men,    "They    will 

52 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  ADULT  LIFE 

not  break  into  the  church,  but  they  are  wait- 
ing to  be  urged  to  come  in  when  the  church 
swings  open  the  door  with  the  fearless  abandon 
that  a  serving  church  must  ever  have  toward 
hungry-hearted,  lonely  men."  For  such  men 
the  Organized  Bible  Class  is  the  recruiting 
station,  the  church's  warm  hand  shake  of 
welcome,  and  the  best  answer  to  the  criticism 
that  the  church  has  no  place  for  the  needy  man. 

QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  Who  are  classified  as  adults? 

2.  How   are   adults   influenced   by   their  rela- 

tion to  home  life? 

3.  How    should    business    activities    be    inter- 

preted in  terms  of  religion? 

4.  In  what  way  may  cultural  progress  depend 

upon  economic  prosperity? 

5.  How  does  citizenship  reveal  adult  needs? 

6.  What  may  the  Adult  Bible  Classes  do  to 

help  the  church  meet  these  needs? 


53 


CHAPTER  IV 

The  Organized  Bible  Class  is  out  for  business,  or 
it  has  no  business  to  be  out. — W.  F,  Tomlinson. 

There  is  hardly  an  Adult  Bible  Class  anywhere 
but  might  be  doubled  in  membership  within  a  brief 
period,  if  a  few  people  set  about  the  work. — Wade 
Crawford  Barclay, 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  ORGANIZED  BIBLE  CLASS 

By  means  of  organization  the  Bible  class 
has  come  €o  be  a  distinct  institution  in  the 
life  of  the  church.  It  is  being  tried  out  in  so 
many  Sunday  schools  of  such  different  types 
and  is  being  found  so  effective  as  a  religious 
agency  that  it  merits  a  closer  study. 

An  examination  of  the  most  satisfactory 
classes  shows  that  they  grow  out  of  a  definite 
aim  on  the  part  of  their  organizers.  Unen- 
listed  men  of  great  possibilities  for  the  church 
are  in  the  community  and  ought  to  be 
brought  to  Christ  and  added  to  the  working 
forces  of  the  church.  The  Organized  Men's 
Class  is  invoked  as  the  means  to  this  worthy 
end. 

In  a  certain  city  the  church  was  located 
where  an  unusually  large  number  of  "down- 
and-outers"  frequented.  The  pastor  desired  to 
make  his  church  a  saving  station  for  these 
neglected  men.  He  organized  a  Bible  class  of 
57 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

about  forty  strong,  devoted  church  men  and 
assigned  to  them  the  specific  work  of  winning 
and  holding  these  unfortunate  brothers. 

In  a  certain  Sunday  school  a  noble  woman 
observed  that  a  group  of  young  mothers  were 
accustomed  to  bring  their  little  children  to 
the  Beginners'  Department  and  sit  as  specta- 
tors until  the  class  session  was  over.  It 
occurred  to  her  alert  mind  that  these  mothers 
might  be  organized  into  a  Bible  Class  for  the 
study  of  the  problems  of  motherhood,  and  that 
such  a  class  might  be  made  the  means  of 
reaching  mothers  who  were  not  at  that  time 
interested  in  the  Sunday  school.  She  pro- 
ceeded upon  that  inspiration  and  gave  to  the 
church  one  of  its  most  valuable  agencies.  By 
observing  this  first  principle  of  a  definite  pur- 
pose for  the  class,  a  necessary  grading  of  the 
adult  life  is  partially  done,  and  the  reason  for 
the  class  is  seen  to  be  worthy. 

As  a  preliminary  step  to  the  formal  organiza- 
tion of  the  class  it  pays  to  canvass  the  avail- 
able constituency,  talk  over  the  worthwhileness 
of  the  purpose,  and  create  a  conviction  that 
the  proposed  plans  should  be  carried  out. 
The  organization  will  then  be  an  outgrowth 
of  an  imperative  demand.  When  the  interested 
68 


THE  ORGANIZED  BIBLE  CLASS 

persons  are  called  together  to  effect  the  organ- 
ization, the  occasion  should  have  the  benefit 
of  carefully  arranged  social  and  inspirational 
features.  Each  person  should  be  impressed 
with  a  sense  of  the  great  importance  of  the 
undertaking.  The  possibilities  of  the  proposed 
class  should  awaken  enthusiasm. 

The  organization  should  not  be  too  elaborate. 
The  purpose  to  be  realized  should  determine 
the  organization,  rather  than  any  prescribed 
standard. 

An  Organized  Bible  Class  provides  for  an 
important  distribution  of  responsibility.  It  has 
an  advantage  in  that  it  provides  for  a  regular 
meeting  as  often  as  once  a  week.  This  fre- 
quency and  regularity  of  meeting  tend  to  pro- 
mote group  consciousness  and  to  strengthen 
the  bonds  of  brotherhood. 

It  is  worth  while  to  give  the  class  a  sig- 
nificant name  and  a  striking  motto.  These 
with  a  daring  program  have  caught  the  imag- 
ination of  an  entire  community,  resulting  in  a 
quickening  of  religious  interest  far  beyond  the 
membership  of  the  class.  At  the  organization 
of  a  certain  class  of  men  composed  largely  of 
nonchurchgoers,  the  newly  elected  president 
said,  "Men,  we  have  been  called  *the  strays.' 
59 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

I  suggest  that  we  strike  out  the  *r'  and  call 
our  class  The  Stays.'  " 

In  selecting  officers  discriminating  care  should 
be  taken,  at  least  in  the  case  of  the  president, 
secretary  and  teacher.  These  three  officers 
form  a  triangle  in  which  the  promise  of  success 
resides.  The  president  must  be  a  leader.  He 
must  have  a  contagious  interest  and  a  definite 
program.  Many  a  class  has  fallen  out  of  the 
running  on  the  first  lap  because  the  president 
was  a  negative  quantity. 

Few  Sunday  school  workers  have  realized  as 
yet  the  potency  for  success  that  lies  in  the 
records.  A  secretary  who  keeps  records  with 
accuracy  and  fullness  and  makes  them  avail- 
able for  the  information  of  the  entire  class, 
holds  a  key  to  class  efficiency  that  no  other 
person  possesses.  He  can  devise  effective 
means  for  maintaining  regularity  of  attendance; 
he  can  secure  and  report  information  respect- 
ing the  sick,  unemployed,  or  bereaved  members 
of  the  class  that  will  lead  to  a  fraternal  spirit 
that  ought  to  characterize  every  class. 

In  the  Organized  Class  the  teacher's  duties 
are  simplified.  He  is  not  burdened  with  the 
details  involved  in  assembling  the  class.  His 
main  task  is  to  make  the  class  period  of  the 

60 


THE  ORGANIZED  BIBLE  CLASS 

utmost  profit  to  the  members.  He  must  think 
wisely  and  broadly  of  the  lesson  material  that 
will  be  most  suitable  to  his  class.  He  must 
study  with  great  care  the  effect  of  the  methods 
he  uses  in  conducting  the  class  session.  He 
must  be  not  simply  a  man  of  ability,  but  one 
of  adaptability.  Above  all  he  must  have  a 
character  that  commands  the  respect  and  con- 
fidence of  all  who  know  him.  Other  oflScers 
are  important,  but  upon  these  three  the  pyramid 
of  success  is  based. 

The  organization  is  not  complete,  of  course, 
until  each  class  has  enrolled  at  headquarters. 
The  main  reason  in  relating  the  individual 
classes  to  each  other  by  a  system  of  enroll- 
ment at  the  central  office  is  not  the  benefit 
that  may  come  to  the  class,  although  that  is 
no  insignificant  matter.  The  main  advantage 
lies  in  being  able  to  use  the  central  office  as  a 
clearing  house  for  receiving  and  dispensing 
information  concerning  successful  methods  and 
suggestive  achievements.  This  unselfish  pur- 
pose in  enrollment  ought  to  appeal  to  many 
classes  content  to  live  unto  themselves.  Many 
a  class  owes  its  existence  to-day  to  the  stim- 
ulus that  came  in  the  form  of  a  report  from 
some  successful  class.  The  inquiries  that 
61 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

come  to  the  Board  of  Sunday  Schools  are 
numerous  and  insistent.  They  are  not  asking 
for  theoretical  answers.  They  want  to  know 
how  other  classes  are  meeting  situations  similar 
to  theirs.  The  classes  that  have  entered  the 
connectional  fellowship  by  enrollment  are  able 
to  supply  elixir  of  life  that  keeps  many  a  brother 
class  from  heart  failure.  It  should  be  a  strong 
incentive  to  any  class  to  meet  so  successfully 
the  needs  of  its  church  and  community  as  to 
be  an  example  to  other  classes. 

In  Sunday  schools  where  two  or  more  Adult 
Bible  Classes  exist,  they  should  complete  the 
matter  of  organization  by  becoming  an  Adult 
Department.  In  the  larger  schools  where  the 
room  is  available  the  adults  may  all  meet 
together  for  an  opening  service.  In  such  cases 
the  superintendent  of  the  department  presides. 
This  form  of  organization  does  not  endanger 
the  integrity  of  the  several  classes.  It  simply 
provides  for  desirable  cooperation.  The  organ- 
ization of  the  department  should  be  an  example 
of  simplicity.  In  some  instances  the  classes  do 
not  meet  at  the  Sunday  school  session  as  a 
department  owing  to  lack  of  available  space, 
but  they  provide  for  meetings  in  the  capacity 
of  an  Adult  Department  at  suitable  times 
62 


THE  ORGANIZED  BIBLE  CLASS 

during  the  week,  for  social  purposes  or  for  the 
consideration  of  proposed  tasks  in  which  all 
the  classes  are  interested. 

Where  the  adults  are  organized  as  a  distinct 
department,  and  have  facilities  that  make  it 
possible,  the  activities  carried  on  formerly  by 
the  organized  classes  may  be  conducted  by  the 
department.  By  making  the  Adult  Depart- 
ment the  abiding  unit,  the  way  is  open  for 
introducing  a  plan  for  study  courses  that  will 
greatly  increase  the  educational  value  of  the 
study  period. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  Sunday  school  year 
a  series  of  lesson  courses  may  be  agreed  upon, 
each  to  be  of  three  or  six  months'  duration. 
The  teachers  will  be  selected  for  the  courses 
and  will  teach  the  lessons  assigned  through- 
out the  year.  At  this  point  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  Adult  Department  has  a  faculty  and  a 
curriculum.  What  about  the  membership  of 
the  classes?  After  the  nature  of  the  different 
courses  has  been  clearly  put  before  all  the 
members  of  the  department,  they  will  be  asked 
to  choose  which  course  they  will  take  first, 
subject  to  such  an  adjustment  of  choices  as 
may  be  necessary  to  furnish  each  class  with  a 
reasonable  number.  At  the  end  of  three  or 
&6 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

six  months'  study,  as  the  case  may  be,  the 
members  will  change  to  other  classes,  but  the 
teacher  will  present  the  same  work  a  second  time. 
Something  like  this  is  being  introduced  into 
well-organized  Sunday  schools.  It  is  the  log- 
ical outcome  of  the  growing  determination  to 
give  religious  education  the  benefit  of  all  the 
standard  methods  employed  in  purely  Hterary 
institutions.  It  is  a  slow  process  to  secure 
carefully  graded  organization  for  Sunday  schools 
that  have  not  been  controlled  by  educational 
aims,  but  have  been  in  the  habit  of  thinking 
of  success  in  terms  of  numbers  and  enthusi- 
astic exercises.  So  it  will  be  some  time  before 
the  pl*omoters  of  large  Bible  Classes,  with  their 
inspirational  messages,  will  see  that  large 
departments,  with  many  small  study  groups, 
answer  best  the  educational  needs  of  adults, 
and  meet  equally  well  the  demand  for  social, 
fraternal,  and  community  service.  Workers  in 
the  field  of  adult  religious  education  must  not 
become  weary  and  discouraged  because  their 
ideals  are  not  more  quickly  realized.  The 
rapidly  growing  interest  in  religious  education 
for  the  whole  range  of  human  life  is  bound  to 
help  us  toward  the  goal  of  a  deeper  and  more 
lasting  success  with  adults. 
64 


THE  ORGANIZED  BIBLE  CLASS 
QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  What  importance  is  attached  to  definiteness 

of  aim  for  the  Organized  Bible  Class? 

2.  Why  give  a  name  and  a  motto  to  a  class? 

3.  Who  are  the  key  men  in  a  successful  Bible 

Class? 

4.  What  are  the  duties  of  the  president?    The 

secretary?     The  teacher? 

5.  What  is  meant  by  "The  Adult  Department"? 

6.  In   what   way   may  an   Adult  Department 

be    organized    when    the   facilities    for    a 
meeting  place  are  not  adequate? 

7.  What  effect  has  thorough  organization  upon 

educational  values? 


65 


CHAPTER  V 

Why  is  it  that  in  the  minds  of  many  people 
religion  and  gloom  are  synonymous  terms?  In 
popular  thinking  the  minister,  the  undertaker,  and 
the  funeral  are  like  the  three  fates,  a  solemn  trin- 
ity in  a  doleful  unity. — A.  L,  Hall-Quest. 

It's  given  me  to  perceive. 

And  I  most  certainly  believe 

That  when  a  feller's  jest  glad  plum  through, 

God's  pleased  with  him,  same  as  you. 

— James  Whitcomh  Riley.    . 


CHAPTER  V 
MAINTAINING  CLASS  INTEREST 

In  common  with  most  organizations  the 
Adult  Bible  Class  approaches  high  tides  of 
interest  and  then  recedes  to  low  levels.  There 
are  times  when  the  energy  of  the  class  is  cen- 
tered upon  increasing  the  membership,  spread- 
ing abroad  publicity,  engaging  in  spectacular 
performances.  At  such  times  the  class  is  said 
to  be  flourishing.  During  such  a  period  new 
people  are  enlisted,  and  some  who  were  losing 
interest  are  restored. 

A  very  common  method  of  awakening  class 
enthusiasm  is  the  "contest  method."  This 
is  often  used  by  dividing  a  class  into  two 
groups  and  putting  them  against  each  other 
in  securing  new  members.  Sometimes  the  con- 
test is  waged  between  two  classes  in  the  same 
church,  the  women's  class  against  the  men's 
class  for  example.  Occasionally  classes  are 
ambitious  and  daring  enough  to  arrange  for 
a  contest  when  they  represent  different  churches 
or  even  different  cities.  One  of  the  most 
69 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

striking  illustrations  of  this  contest  method 
that  have  come  to  my  notice  took  place  between 
two  men's  classes  fifty  miles  apart.  Although 
detailed  rules  were  agreed  upon  to  govern 
the  contest,  and  a  reasonably  short  time 
was  allowed  for  the  campaign,  the  enthusiasm 
reached  such  bounds  that  on  the  closing  Sun- 
day more  than  three  thousand  men  tried  to 
attend  each  class.  The  men's  classes  of  all 
denominations  for  miles  around  were  disbanded 
on  that  day.  No  one  would  take  the  position 
that  such  an  excessive  use  of  the  spirit  of  con- 
test is  commendable.  Undoubtedly,  many  men 
were  made  familiar  with  the  Adult  Bible  Class 
through  this  contest  who  had  never  known 
about  it.  Some  of  them  probably  found  per- 
manent interest  in  some  men's  class.  But 
when  all  the  possible  benefits  have  been  re- 
cited and  fully  appraised,  the  method  must 
be  classed  among  the  "get-rich-quick"  methods. 
There  must  be  a  more  excellent  way. 

The  use  of  special  days  as  rallying  occasions 
is  a  method  that  yields  good  results.  The 
calendar  offers  a  number  of  attractive  days 
for  such  use,  such  as  Mother's  Day,  Father's 
Day,  Easter,  Christmas,  Labor  Day,  etc. 
With  the  use  of  these  rally  days  should  go 
70 


MAINTAINING  CLASS  INTEREST 

striking  and  commanding  publicity.  There  is 
no  good  reason  why  the  powerful  art  of  the 
cartoonist  may  not  be  used  in  "putting  across" 
the  message  of  the  Adult  Bible  Class.  Many 
classes  have  in  their  membership  persons  who 
have  the  natural  gift  of  the  illustrator.  This 
gift  should  be  encouraged  and  used.  The 
conventionality  with  which  church  work  has 
been  hmited  so  often  should  not  be  permitted 
to  stand  in  the  way  of  a  free  use  of  any  winning 
form  of  publicity. 

Another  item  in  the  work  of  maintaining 
class  interest  is  the  atmosphere  and  spirit  of 
the  class  session.  The  class  should  create  an 
atmosphere  of  wholesome,  refreshing  sociability. 
Time  should  be  taken  in  connection  with  the 
class  session  to  emphasize  the  variety  of  life 
interests  for  which  the  class  stands.  Worship 
and  instruction  are  the  great  interests  during 
the  class  period,  but  good  fellowship,  fra- 
ternal service,  and  community  welfare  have 
an  important  place  in  the  life  of  the  class,  and 
ought  to  be  recognized  in  the  session  of  the 
class.  Many  people  are  won  and  held  to 
membership  in  the  Bible  class  to-day  because 
it  stands  for  a  manifold  program. 

The  most  steadily  useful  classes  to-day  have 
71 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

discovered  that  there  is  no  substitute  for 
methodical,  patient,  persistent  work  in  keep- 
ing up  the  membership  and  interest  of  the 
class.  The  oflScers  accept  their  duties  con- 
scientiously. They  survey  the  field.  They 
make  and  keep  complete  records.  They  fol- 
low up  new  members  until  they  are  built  into 
the  activities  of  the  class.  They  have  an  in- 
terest in  the  absentee,  they  make  him  know 
that  he  is  missed.  The  class  stands  ready  to 
serve  in  a  practical  way  any  member  who  is 
in  trouble  of  any  sort.  No  class  will  accidentally 
fall  into  success  any  more  than  a  business 
concern  will  accidentally  prosper.  Somebody  is 
putting  thought  and  time  and  sacrifice  into 
the  Bible  Classes  that  are  alive  and  fruitful 
to-day. 

One  of  these  businesslike  classes  was  organ- 
ized in  a  village  of  fewer  than  five  hundred 
and  fifty  souls.  The  charter  membership  con- 
sisted of  sixteen  men.  The  president  believed 
that  this  organization  could  be  made  the  means 
of  reaching  a  large  number  of  men  who  had 
shown  no  interest  in  the  regular  services  of 
the  church.  Very  early  in  the  history  of  the 
class  it  was  made  clear  to  the  community  that 
the  entire  range  of  life  interests  in  that  village 
72 


MAINTAINING  CLASS  INTEREST 

were  to  be  served  as  far  as  possible  by  the 
men  of  the  class  called  Big  Brothers.  The 
teacher  of  a  group  of  boys  desired  very  much 
to  take  some  of  his  boys  to  a  convention  where 
the  religious  welfare  of  boys  was  to  be  dis- 
cussed by  prominent  leaders.  His  going  de- 
pended upon  his  getting  his  corn  crop  harvested. 
The  Big  Brothers  turned  in  and  gave  him  a 
lift  and  made  it  possible  for  him  to  attend 
the  convention.  These  Big  Brothers  built  a 
substantial  dam  across  a  small  stream  that 
ran  through  the  village  in  order  that  the  young 
people  might  have  a  swimming  pool  for  the 
summer  and  a  skating  pond  for  the  winter. 
Such  a  sympathetic  interest  in  young  life  holds 
the  boys  and  girls  to  the  church. 

The  class  set  for  its  membership  goal  the 
last  available  man  in  the  village  and  immediate 
community.  A  complete  list  of  these  men  was 
drawn  up.  It  was  found  that  there  were  just 
one  hundred  men  who  ought  to  be  on  the  roll 
of  the  Big  Brothers  Class.  A  personal  campaign 
brought  the  membership  up  to  sixty.  Then 
this  thing  was  done.  The  sixty  members  were 
organized  into  ten  groups  of  six  each  and  the 
forty  unenlisted  were  divided  into  ten  groups 
of  four  each,  and  a  group  of  four  was  assigned 
73 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

to  each  group  of  six.  At  the  time  of  the  last 
report  the  enrollment  had  reached  eighty- 
one. 

A  young  man,  an  expert  accountant  in  a 
large  mercantile  establishment,  was  made  re- 
ligious director  of  a  men's  class  which  was 
small  and  purposeless.  He  introduced  into 
the  class  the  same  systematic  business  methods 
that  were  used  in  the  establishment  with  which 
he  worked.  The  unenlisted  men  were  not  only 
invited  by  mail,  but  visited  by  members  and 
accompanied  to  the  meeting.  The  result  was 
an  average  attendance  the  first  year  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five.  During  the  year 
fifty  men  were  won  to  Christ  by  that  class 
and  were  received  into  the  church. 

The  postal  service,  telephone,  and  automobile 
have  great  possibilities  in  them  for  keeping 
up  the  class  interest,  when  they  are  freely 
used.  How  quickly  a  committee  may  call  up 
a  large  number  of  persons  and  remind  them 
of  some  special  feature  at  the  Bible  Class  ses- 
sion that  should  strongly  appeal  to  them. 
How  irresistible  is  the  invitation  that  couples 
with  it  the  announcement  that  the  speaker 
will  call  round  with  his  automobile  and  take 
his  friend  to  the  class  with  him. 
74 


MAINTAINING  CLASS  INTEREST 

There  is  a  strong  tendency  on  the  part  of 
the  members  of  a  class  to  look  to  the  work  of 
the  teacher  as  the  all  sufficient  attraction  to 
maintain  class  interest  and  attendance.  This 
tendency  is  quite  sure  to  crop  out  when  the 
attendance  begins  to  fall  off.  Some  will  lay 
it  to  the  kind  of  lessons  used,  others  will 
find  fault  with  the  teacher's  method.  They 
say  that  he  does  not  give  opportunity  for  dis- 
cussion or  questions,  or  that  he  permits  a 
few  "argufyers"  to  spoil  the  hour. 

The  teacher,  with  his  methods  and  materials, 
is  one  important  factor  in  sustaining  class 
interest  and  attendance,  but  he  must  not  be 
charged  with  the  whole  responsibility.  He 
deserves  and  should  have  the  heartiest  co- 
operation and  support  of  all  the  officers  and 
members  of  the  class. 

There  are  teachers  who  resent  suggestions 
from  anyone.  In  such  cases  the  situation  is 
rendered  more  difficult.  These  are  exceptions. 
Most  teachers  are  eager  to  know  how  their 
work  is  impressing  the  members  of  the  class. 
There  are  tactful  ways  by  which  the  frankest 
suggestions  may  be  made  without  offense.  The 
successful  Bible  Class  is  a  democracy.  It 
prospers  in  proportion  as  all  the  members 
75 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

recognize  their  responsibility  and  endeavor  to 
meet  it. 

Nothing  has  in  it  the  potency  for  sustaining 
class  interest  that  belongs  with  actual  achieve- 
ment for  others  and  for  the  growth  of  the 
Kingdom.  Real  alert  people  soon  weary  of 
activities  that  center  upon  themselves.  Classes 
that  seek  to  provide  only  for  their  own  com- 
fort and  growth,  as  if  they  were  ends  instead 
of  means,  need  not  be  surprised  when  interest 
lags  and  attendance  falls  off;  but  let  the  mem- 
bership of  a  class  see  that  their  organization  is 
serving  to  relieve  distress,  to  hearten  the  dis- 
couraged, to  add  new  recruits  to  the  Kingdom, 
to  further  missions,  and  to  give  religion  a 
larger  place  in  the  consciousness  of  the  com- 
munity, and  their  interest  will  increase  and 
their  powers  for  inventing  ways  and  means 
of  larger  service  will  be  quickened.  Every 
service  rendered  becomes  a  new  point  of  con- 
tact between  the  class  and  the  constituency  it 
would  reach.  Better  than  all  other  forms  of 
publicity  are  the  worthy  achievements  done. 
You  can  no  more  hide  such  a  class  from  the 
admiring  eyes  of  the  community  than  you 
can  hide  a  city  that  is  set  upon  a  hill. 


76 


MAINTAINING  CLASS  INTEREST 
QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  What  is  said  of  the  "contest  method"  of 

increasing  class  interest? 

2.  In  what  way  may  the  observance  of  "special 

days"  add  to  class  interest? 

3.  How  far  may  a  Bible  class  go  in  the  use  of 

"striking  publicity"? 

4.  What  effect  has  the  social  atmosphere  upon 

class  interest? 

5.  What  modern  conveniences  aid  in  keeping 

in  touch  with  the  members  of  a  class? 

6.  What  may  be  said  for  the  method  of  per- 

sonal   invitation    in    building    up    class 
membership? 

7.  How  does  a  worth-while  task  affect  class 

interest? 


77 


CHAPTER  VI 

Finally,  brethren,  whatsoever  things  are  true,  .  .  . 
whatsoever  things  are  just,  whatsoever  things  are 
pure,  whatsoever  things  are  lovely,  whatsoever 
things  are  of  good  report;  if  there  be  any  virtue, 
and  if  there  be  any  praise,  think  on  these  things. 
— Saint  Paul. 


CHAPTER  VI 

WHAT  ADULT  BIBLE  CLASSES 
SHOULD  STUDY 

What  shall  the  Adult  Bible  Class  study? 

"The  Bible,  of  course/'  said  a  ready  brother 
when  this  question  was  asked  in  a  Sunday 
school  institute  recently.  So  it  would  seem. 
A  Bible  Class  would  be  expected  to  study  the 
Bible.  The  answer  is  not  quite  as  simple  as 
the  prompt  brother's  accent  would  indicate. 

What  is  the  scope  of  Bible  study?  There 
are  those  who  would  confine  Bible  study  to 
the  content  of  the  book.  If  any  other  matter 
should  be  proposed  as  the  basis  of  class  dis- 
cussion, it  would  have  to  come  in  as  "extra- 
biblical"  material.  The  term  "extra  biblical" 
is  misleading,  for  the  reason  that  the  fruits 
of  the  Bible  are  as  certainly  within  the  scope 
of  Bible  study  as  are  the  contents.  A  simple 
illustration  should  make  this  apparent.  If  one 
should  set  out  to  study  an  apple  tree,  he  would 
not  think  his  work  complete  if  he  did  not 
81 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

include  in  his  investigation  the  luscious  fruit 
borne  by  the  tree.  Has  the  Bible  borne  any 
fruit  in  the  world's  civilization?  It  is  quite 
fair  to  the  Bible  not  to  include  in  the  study 
of  it  the  great  Christian  characters,  institu- 
tions, and  movements  that  have  grown  out 
of  it?  If  we  are  to  be  true  to  the  spirit  of  the 
book  itseK,  we  must  regard  it  as  more  than 
a  volume  of  so  many  pages  of  printed  matter. 
It  is  a  body  of  truth  that  has  unbroken  causal 
relations  with  Christian  life  and  literature  even 
unto  our  day. 

We  agree  with  our  brother  that  the  Bible, 
of  course,  should  be  the  material  for  the  Adult 
Bible  Classes  to  study.  We  insist,  however, 
that  its  fruits,  as  well  as  its  contents,  shall  be 
included  in  the  study.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
many  Adult  Bible  Classes  are  using  the  class 
hour  for  the  discussion  of  social  problems  and 
community  interests.  How  does  this  square 
with  the  legitimate  business  of  a  Bible  Class? 
Is  it  not  perfectly  congruous?  If  a  man  is 
seeking  to  qualify  as  a  physician,  we  expect 
him  to  study  medicine  thoroughly.  If,  how- 
ever, he  expects  us  to  call  him  when  we  are 
sick,  he  must  study  diseases  also.  He  must 
be  able  to  recognize  symptoms.  He  should  also 
82 


ADULT  BIBLE  CLASS  STUDY 

have  some  knowledge  of  the  patient  to  be 
treated.  This  parable  hardly  needs  to  be 
declared.  Bible  Classes  do  not  meet  simply  to 
master  the  message  of  the  Bible,  but  to  qualify 
as  social  doctors  in  applying  the  saving  truth 
to  the  conditions  of  individual  and  social  life 
that  need  changing.  It  is  perfectly  legitimate 
and  of  the  utmost  importance  that  the  Adult 
Bible  Classes  should  claim  for  themselves  a 
wide  scope  for  their  study  and  investigation. 

The  adjustment  of  the  modern  methods  of 
religious  instruction  to  the  adults  in  the  Sunday 
school  is  such  a  recent  undertaking  that  many 
improvements  may  be  expected  as  the  work 
progresses.  In  the  early  stages  of  this  work 
all  adults  were  treated  alike.  We  are  now 
insisting  that  adult  life  requires  grading  for 
educational  purposes  as  certainly  as  childhood 
or  youth.  The  diversity  of  age  and  of  interest 
must  be  respected  if  the  Christian  character 
of  the  members  of  Adult  Classes  is  to  be  built 
up  by  educational  processes.  Nothing  will 
aid  so  effectively  in  their  classification  as  a 
variety  of  elective  courses  of  study. 

One  of  the  best-organized  schools  in  Illinois 
has  recently  introduced  into  its  Adult  Depart- 
ment a  regular  curriculum,  having  such  courses 
83 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

as  Social  Service,  Missions,  Church  History, 
Teacher  Training,  Historical  Bible  Study,  Uni- 
form Bible  Lessons,  and  Courses  for  Parents. 
A  thoroughly  qualified  teacher  is  assigned  to 
each  course.  The  members  of  the  department 
may  elect  the  course  they  will  study  first,  and 
after  completing  the  term  in  that  course  they 
elect  another.  In  this  case  the  Adult  Depart- 
ment rather  than  the  class  is  the  unit  of  organ- 
ization. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  courses  being 
provided  by  the  Curriculum  Committee  of  the 
Board  of  Sunday  Schools  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church. 

1.  The  International  Uniform  Lessons,  The 
adoption  of  Uniform  Lesson  material  by  the 
Sunday  schools  of  North  America  undoubtedly 
did  much  toward  bringing  the  Sunday  schools 
of  the  different  denominations  into  a  closer 
fellowship.  There  is  no  educational  virtue, 
however,  in  the  mere  fact  of  uniformity.  The 
Uniform  Lessons  must  stand  on  the  merit  of 
their  educational  value,  and  not  on  their 
uniformity.  They  are  so  well  presented  and 
so  ably  expounded  in  the  Sunday  school  publi- 
cations that  teachers  and  classes  of  adults  find 
them  profitable.  They  are  more  satisfactory 
84 


ADULT  BIBLE  CLASS  STUDY 

during  some  periods  of  the  year  than  at  other 
times. 

2.  The  Development  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
Believing  that  worth-while  religious  results 
could  be  secured  by  selecting  some  great  de- 
veloping idea  in  religion  and  studying  its 
growth,  the  Curriculum  Committee  of  the 
Board  of  Sunday  Schools  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  has  provided  for  a  three 
years'  study  of  the  idea  of  the  kingdom  of 
God,  as  it  has  developed  in  Jewish  and  Chris- 
tian history.  The  first  two  years  deal  with 
material  found  in  the  content  of  the  Bible. 
The  third  year  follows  the  idea  of  the  kingdom 
of  God  from  Pentecost  to  the  present  time. 
It  is  easy  to  see  that  such  a  study  brings  out 
the  fact  that  the  real  unity  of  the  Scriptures 
is  in  vital,  growing  ideas;  that  the  rule  of  God 
in  human  life  did  not  cease  when  the  last 
book  of  the  Scriptures  was  written,  but  is  a 
fact  of  our  day.  This  course  offers  a  most 
profitable  method  of  Bible  study. 

Short  Elective  Courses 

The  religious  interests  of  adult  life  are  so 
varied  and  the  groups  organized  for  study  and 
85 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

service  are  of  so  many  kinds  that  it  has  seemed 
advisable  to  offer  some  short  elective  courses 
that  deal  with  timely  matters  and  portions 
of  Scripture  having  exceptional  religious  value. 
A  beginning  has  already  been  made  in  this 
direction.  The  following  short  courses  are 
available  and  have  been  widely  used  by  the 
Adult  Classes: 

(a)  The  Liquor  Problem.  A  course  running 
for  one  quarter,  edited  by  Professor  Norman 

E.  Richardson.  This  course  is  a  perfect  arsenal 
of  fact  and  illustration  on  the  present  status 
of  the  temperance  situation. 

(b)  Poverty  and  Wealth.  A  course  of  one 
quarter's  duration,  edited  by  Professor  Harry 

F.  Ward,  the  expert  on  social  and  industrial 
problems.  This  course  is  calculated  to  bring 
about  a  clear  understanding  of  the  issues  that 
produce  so  much  friction  in  the  social  world 
and  to  point  the  way  to  industrial  peace. 

(c)  International  Peace.  Thirteen  lessons 
in  which  Christian  truth  is  brought  to  bear 
upon  the  insistent  problems  of  international 
relations.  Who  does  not  see  the  great  impor- 
tance of  Christian  laymen  becoming  informed 
upon  the  facts  and  principles  of  world  brother- 
hood? 

86 


ADULT  BIBLE  CLASS  STUDY 

Other  Short  Courses  Soon  to  Appear 

(a)  Devotional  Studies  in  the  Psalms.  A 
study  of  thirteen  selected  psalms  as  they  re- 
late to  the  great  virtues  of  character  and  expe- 
rience. 

(6)  Thirteen  Parables  of  Jesus.  Selected 
with  reference  to  their  messages  for  our  day. 

(c)  The  Church  and  Its  Task.  A  course 
that  involves  the  study  of  the  manifold  task 
of  the  modern  church,  and  the  nature  of  the 
church's  organization  to  meet  that  task. 

{d)  Everyday  Ethics.  The  men  and  women 
of  our  strenuous  day  need  a  moral  tonic  to 
strengthen  them  against  indifference  to  the 
plain  moral  requirements  of  everyday  life. 
This  course  will  be  of  great  value  to  busy  men 
who  live  in  the  white  heat  of  temptation  and 
are  subjected  to  the  subtlety  of  casuistry. 

Books  suitable  for  Adult  Classes  to  study  are 
being  prepared  upon  nearly  every  subject  of  vital 
interest,  such  as  family  life.  Christian  steward- 
ship, church  doctrine,  civic  duties,  and  social 
service. 

The  department  of  Religious  Education  of 
the  Chicago  University  is  putting  out  a  series 
of  studies  adapted  to  the  needs  of  Adult  Bible 
Classes. 

87 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

Many  of  the  courses  prepared  for  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  lend  themselves 
readily  to  the  use  of  teachers  of  young  men's 
Bible  Classes.  The  Sunday  school  leaders  of 
all  the  important  Protestant  denominations  are 
striving  to  meet  the  growing  demand  of  the 
Adult  Classes  for  suitable  lesson  material. 
The  promise  for  a  more  intelligent  and  there- 
fore a  more  eflScient  laity  in  the  church  was 
never  brighter  than  it  is  to-day. 

QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  What  is  the  scope  of  Bible  study? 

2.  Should   adults   be  graded  in  forming  them 

into  study  groups  .^^ 

3.  What  are  the  advantages  of  short  elective 

courses? 

4.  What  provision  is  made  by  publishing  houses 

for  lesson  helps  for  Adult  Classes? 


88 


CHAPTER  VII 

The  primary  requisite  for  the  teacher  will  be 
an  eagerness  to  learn,  a  sufficiently  deep  interest 
in  the  subject  to  lead  to  thorough  study. 

No  one  can  teach  this  class  who  already  knows 
all  about  the  subject. — Henry  F.  Cope. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  TEACHER  AND  TEACHING 
METHODS 

Who  shall  teach  the  Adult  Bible  Class? 
Usually  the  one  who  asks  this  familiar  question 
wants  to  know  whether  it  is  advisable  for  the 
pastor  of  the  church  to  assume  the  duties  of 
Bible  Class  teacher.  Sometimes,  however,  the 
questioner  is  calling  out  a  discussion  of  the 
personality  and  equipment  of  one  who  shall 
undertake  the  responsibility  of  teaching  a  com- 
pany of  adults. 

As  a  general  policy  the  teachers  of  Adult 
Classes  should  be  found  among  laymen.  The 
pastor's  relation  to  the  entire  school  and  to 
the  other  services  of  the  Sabbath  day  should 
excuse  him  from  teaching  any  particular  class. 
It  often  happens,  however,  that  in  launching 
a  Bible  Class  organization  the  interest  and 
leadership  of  the  pastor  will  be  required  in  the 
most  intimate  relation  to  the  class.  The  wise 
pastor  will  regard  this  duty  as  temporary, 
91 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

and  will  seek  a  suitable  successor  as  early  as 
possible 

The  standard  by  which  the  teacher  of  an 
Adult  Bible  Class  is  selected  is  often  very 
faulty.  A  notion  is  quite  prevalent  that  the 
teacher  must  be  gifted  above  his  fellows  in 
the  art  of  public  speech,  that  he  must  have 
the  prestige  of  prominence  in  public  life. 
Such  a  standard  at  once  limits  the  available 
persons  to  very  few  in  the  most  favored  com- 
munity, and  leaves  many  places  in  despair. 
Ready  speech,  a  trained  intellect,  public  prom- 
inence, are  not  hindrances  to  success  in  teach- 
ing a  Bible  Class,  but  they  are  not  so  essential 
as  to  determine  the  selection  of  the  teacher. 
In  many  communities  the  best  person  for 
teacher  is  obscure,  modest,  unsuspecting.  He 
will  not  be  a  candidate.  He  will  have  to  be 
discovered,  urged,  almost  drafted.  With  the 
sympathetic  backing  of  the  oflScers  and  mem- 
bers of  the  class,  he  will  surprise  himself  and 
his  friends  by  the  helpful  way  in  which  he 
conducts  the  class  session.  David  was  not 
the  most  likely  son  of  Jesse  on  whom  the 
crown  should  be  placed,  but  the  prophet  saw 
the  kingly  possibilities  in  him.  Moses  pro- 
tested his  limitations  when  called  to  lead  Israel 

92 


TEACHER  AND  TEACHING  METHODS 

out  of  bondage,  but  Jehovah  was  insistent  until 
Moses  went  to  his  great  task.  The  essentials 
are  not  always  on  the  surface.  There  are  Bible 
Classes  not  a  few  to-day  where  plain,  practical 
business  men  are  teaching  every  Sunday,  and 
among  the  members  of  the  class  may  be  found 
educators,  leaders  in  their  professions,  and  men 
distinguished  for  public  service.  The  teacher 
who  may  hope  to  succeed  must  have  moral 
integrity.  His  character  must  always  carry 
more  weight  than  his  words.  While  he  should 
not  have  a  morbid  conscience  that  unduly 
magnifies  scruples,  he  should  not  have  an 
elastic  conscience  that  ignores  plain  moral 
distinctions  either  in  his  teaching  or  in  his 
practice.  His  religious  thinking  should  be  in- 
fluenced by  ideals  as  well  as  by  specific  com- 
mandments. He  should  seek  to  develop  a 
well-balanced,  wholesome  personality. 

The  dogmatic  man  does  not  make  a  good 
teacher.  Truth  seekers  do  not  find  much  in- 
centive to  investigation  and  discussion  from 
one  whose  opinions  are  final.  Good  teaching 
requires  mental  hospitality  on  the  part  of 
those  who  are  to  be  taught.  The  teacher  must 
show  equal  hospitality  if  he  is  to  encourage  it 
in  the  members  of  his  class.     Add  to  a  dog- 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

matic  temperament  a  notion  that  there  is 
only  one  clearly  defined  standard  of  Christian 
experience,  and  only  such  as  can  qualify  thereby 
are  recognized  as  within  the  fold,  and  you 
have  a  brother  disqualified  to  teach  adults. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  man  who  respects  the 
honest  opinions  of  others  and  freely  admits 
his  fallibility  will  have  the  respect  and  con- 
fidence of  the  members  of  his  class.  If  he  is 
very  much  more  concerned  that  each  member 
of  his  class  shall  find  Christ  as  a  Saviour  than 
that  any  standard  method  of  conversion  shall 
be  vindicated,  he  will  probably  help  men  of 
different  temperaments  and  prejudices  to  sub- 
mit themselves  to  the  mastership  of  Jesus. 

It  is  not  essential  that  the  teacher  of  an 
Adult  Class  shall  know  the  Scriptures  better 
than  any  member  of  the  class.  He  should 
not  permit  anyone,  however,  to  excel  him  in 
eagerness  and  industry  as  a  student  of  the 
Bible.  He  should  supply  himself  with  some 
of  the  best  modern  helps  to  Bible  study.  He 
should  not  lose  himself  in  the  less  important 
matters  of  the  Bible  about  which  there  are 
many  different  opinions,  but,  rather,  lead  his 
class  into  the  rich  fields  of  evangelical  truth 
on  which  character  feeds  and  thrives. 
94 


TEACHER  AND  TEACHING  METHODS 

We  have  discussed  elsewhere  in  this  book 
the  courses  of  study  suitable  to  Adult  Classes. 
We  have  pointed  out  that  fairness  to  the  Bible 
demands  that  we  shall  study  the  characters, 
institutions,  and  movements  that  have  been 
produced  by  the  Bible,  as  well  as  its  content; 
that  we  should  study  the  personal  and  social 
life  problems  for  the  solution  of  which  the 
Bible  offers  the  only  sure  remedy. 

This  statement  of  the  scope  of  study  for 
Adult  Classes  naturally  leads  to  a  discussion 
of  the  methods  to  be  employed  by  the  teacher. 
What  material,  if  any,  shall  the  members  of 
the  class  have?  Wherever  possible  each  mem- 
ber should  have  a  Bible.  A  great  many  classes 
have  a  supply  of  Bibles  for  distribution  at  the 
class  session.  In  rare  instances  the  members 
bring  their  own  Bibles.  This  will  hardly  be- 
come a  common  practice  among  the  large 
numbers  who  attend  the  classes,  but  are  not 
habitual  Bible  readers.  The  church  publish- 
ing houses  put  out  a  bewildering  variety  of 
lesson  leaves,  magazines,  and  booklets.  Some 
of  these  should  be  provided  for  the  class  in 
sufficient  quantity  to  furnish  each  member  and 
visitor  with  a  copy. 

Special  consideration  has  been  given  Adult 
95 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

Classes  by  the  publishers  in  furnishing  an 
Adult  Bible  Class  magazine  which  contains 
able  discussions  of  the  lessons  and  valuable 
articles  and  news  items  concerning  the  work 
among  adults.  This  type  of  lesson  help  would 
seem  the  most  fitting  for  Adult  Classes.  With 
the  class  thus  equipped,  how  shall  the  teacher 
present  the  lesson? 

One  of  the  most  common  methods  is  called 
"the  lecture  method."  The  teacher  accepts 
his  class  as  an  audience  and  dehvers  an  ad- 
dress more  or  less  closely  related  to  the  lesson 
for  the  day.  This  method  strictly  adhered  to 
has  the  advantage  of  occupying  fully  the  brief 
time  allotted  for  treating  a  lesson  that  deserves 
more  time  than  the  Sunday  school  hour  affords. 
Many  a  teacher  would  be  glad  to  use  the 
dialogue  method  if  the  pressure  of  time  did 
not  make  the  necessary  pauses  of  that  method 
seem  so  wasteful.  So  often  the  members  of 
the  class  seem  to  prefer  to  be  addressed  rather 
than  to  be  questioned,  that  the  ready  talker 
follows  the  line  of  least  resistance.  Where 
the  lecture  method  prevails,  special  speakers 
are  frequently  invited  to  address  the  class. 
In  some  cases  this  practice  is  resorted  to  so 
often  that  a  systematic  pursuit  of  a  study 
96 


TEACHER  AND  TEACHING  METHODS 

course  is  impossible.  Such  sessions  may  have 
great  inspirational  value,  but  they  can  hardly 
be  called  sessions  of  teaching. 

The  classes  differ  so  radically  in  size,  per- 
sonnel, and  interest  that  no  single  method  can 
be  prescribed  for  all  classes.  A  wise  teacher 
will  not  confine  himself  to  any  one  method 
continuously.  He  will  vary  the  method,  even 
during  a  single  class  session.  Certainly  he 
will  introduce  variety  during  the  course  of  a 
season.  If  the  lecture  method  should  be  in- 
sisted upon  as  the  prevailing  method,  it  would 
limit  greatly  the  available  persons  for  teachers; 
for  few  teachers  are  able  to  lecture  with  profit, 
although  many  could  conduct  a  class  discus- 
sion wisely.  It  is  quite  generally  admitted 
that  participation  on  the  part  of  the  class 
is  a  great  advantage  in  fixing  the  truth  dis- 
cussed in  one's  thinking.  Every  time  the 
teacher  challenges  the  class  to  formulate  either 
a  question  or  an  answer,  he  provokes  a  profit- 
able mental  reaction  whether  the  formulation 
is  completed  or  not.  Some  present-day  Bible 
Classes  are  so  large  that  the  teacher  has  no 
choice  but  to  try  to  talk  to  them.  If  the 
adults  in  the  Sunday  school  were  always  or- 
ganized so  that  their  unity  could  be  cared 
97 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

for  as  a  department,  and  their  diversity  cap- 
italized by  forming  small  groups  for  purposes 
of  instruction,  the  educational  results  would 
undoubtedly  be  greatly  improved.  There  is 
no  defense  for  the  unmodified  lecture  method 
in  the  fact  that  it  is  common  in  the  universities. 
The  analogy  is  not  to  the  point.  The  members 
of  Adult  Bible  Classes  are  not  related  to  the 
courses  of  instruction  presented  to  them  as 
college  students  are  to  the  university  courses. 
Adults  are  not  after  degrees.  They  will  not  be 
subjected  to  searching  examinations,  nor  will 
they  take  careful  and  ample  notes  of  what  the 
teacher  may  say.  They  need  nothing  so  much  as 
to  be  talked  with,  to  be  reminded,  to  have  their 
scattered  knowledge  organized  about  worthy 
ideals,  and  in  the  interest  of  important  service. 
Some  classes  are  conducted  as  an  open 
forum.  The  teacher  acts  as  a  referee,  a  prompter 
or  director.  The  subject  for  discussion  has 
been  given  an  introduction  before  the  class 
by  the  teacher  on  some  previous  Sunday,  mem- 
bers of  the  class  have  been  designated  to  open 
the  discussion.  All  the  members  are  free  to 
participate  if  they  choose.  This  method  used 
occasionally,  say  once  a  month,  popularizes  the 
class,  and  brings  out  the  trend  of  thinking  in 
98 


TEACHER  AND  TEACHING  METHODS 

the  circles  from  which  the  members  of  the 
class  come. 

A  most  pathetic  situation  frequently  ob- 
served is  a  teacher  facing  the  eager  class  utterly 
unprepared  to  meet  the  opportunity.  He  may 
have  relied  confidently  upon  the  conveniently 
prepared  outline  and  material  furnished  by 
the  editor  of  the  lesson  help,  but  even  that 
requires  some  conscientious  preparation  if  it 
is  to  be  a  help  and  not  a  hindrance.  If  he  seeks 
to  conceal  his  unpreparedness,  the  incongruity 
of  such  an  unethical  attempt  plagues  him,  and 
his  failure  in  the  effort  to  deliver  goods  which 
he  has  not  is  reflected  on  the  faces  of  his  hear- 
ers, to  his  discomfiture  and  shame.  No  method 
or  device  can  ever  be  a  substitute  for  prepared- 
ness of  mind  and  spirit  on  the  part  of  a  teacher 
of  religion. 

Given  certain  lesson  material,  the  average 
teacher  and  average  class  facing  each  other, 
what  is  a  reasonable  expectation  for  the  half 
hour's  session?  A  natural  procedure  would 
seem  to  be  first  an  exposition  of  the  lesson, 
setting  forth  clearly  its  main  significance  and 
its  bearing  upon  the  life  interests  of  the  class. 
The  prepared  teacher  should  do  this  in  a 
relatively  short  time,  after  which  opportunity 

99 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

should  be  given  for  an  informal  conference  or 
discussion,  so  skillfully  directed  as  to  secure 
the  participation  of  many  and  the  interest 
of  all.  It  is  no  more  necessary  that  the  teacher 
should  always  point  out  the  application  of  the 
lesson  to  the  needs  of  the  members  than  that 
a  story  should  always  be  accompanied  by  the 
expression  of  its  moral.  Most  people  appre- 
ciate the  compliment  of  being  permitted  to 
make  their  own  application. 

Let  us  conclude,  then,  that  educational 
ideals  for  Adult  Classes  in  the  Sunday  school 
call  for  a  recognition  of  many  types  of  classes, 
which  means  that  there  must  be  flexibility  and 
adaptation  in  lesson  material  and  teaching 
method;  that  the  religious  need  of  the  class 
must  be  the  determining  factor  with  the  teacher; 
that  the  character  and  spirit  of  the  teacher 
will  always  weigh  more  than  any  other  qualifica- 
tion, and  that  the  task  of  the  teacher  of  adults 
brings  him  into  the  midst  of  some  of  the  rich- 
est unused  resources  of  the  kingdom  of  God, 
and  demands,  therefore,  a  high  order  of  service. 

QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  Should   the   pastor   of   the   church   be   the 
regular  teacher  of  an  Adult  Bible  Class? 
100 


TEACHER  AND  TEACHING  METHODS 

2.  What  standard  should  govern  the  selection 

of  a  teacher  for  an  Adult  Class? 

3.  What  effect  has  a  dogmatic  temperament 

and    manner    upon    the    usefulness    of    a 
teacher? 

4.  What  are  the  advantages  and  disadvantages 

of  the  "lecture  method"? 

5.  What  features   may   be   introduced   into   a 

class  session  for  the  sake  of  variety? 

6.  What  value  is  attached  to  a  method  that 

calls  for  participation  on  the  part  of  the 
members  of  the  class? 


101 


CHAPTER  VIII 

When  the  slums  are  in  the  people,  the  people 
will  soon  be  in  the  slums.  Hence  to  labor  with 
environment  alone  is  to  doctor  symptoms  rather 
than  diseases;  and  to  mistake  effects  for  causes 
is  to  seek  to  dry  up  the  stream  while  the  fountain 
is  in  perpetual  flow. — Borden  P.  Bowne. 

Every  church  just  now  is  living  too  much  by 
its  wits.  Never  did  men  in  office  in  the  church 
work  harder.  Never  were  they  more  willing  to 
learn.  Never  were  church  buildings  so  constantly 
in  use.  Never  were  appeals  more  insistent.  Yet 
at  the  best,  having  done  all,  we  stand. — John 
Hutton. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
A  PROGRAM  OF  SERVICE 

Some  speakers  and  writers  upon  the  work 
of  the  Organized  Bible  Class  have  advocated 
limiting  the  function  of  the  class  to  the  study 
and  discussion  of  the  prescribed  lesson.  Classes 
attempting  to  observe  such  a  limitation  find  it 
almost  impossible  to  enlist  the  people  who 
need  the  instruction  most.  Furthermore,  it 
is  altogether  contrary  to  the  well-tested  prin- 
ciple of  education  that  we  must  apply  the  truth 
in  service  if  we  would  make  it  a  part  of  char- 
acter. Our  interest  in  study  is  greatly  enhanced 
by  seeing  its  bearing  upon  the  needs  of  those 
about  us. 

The  experience  of  the  most  useful  Bible 
Classes  bears  witness  that  their  call  is  to 
serve  quite  as  surely  as  to  learn.  The  church 
has  made  a  long  fight  against  all  forms  of 
asceticism.  She  is  succeeding  in  interpreting 
religion  in  terms  of  service.  Every  organiza- 
tion in  the  church  ought  to  provide  for  a 
program  that  would  unite  inseparably  worship 
105 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

and  service.  While  religious  education  is  not 
synonymous  with  worship,  it  relates  to  per- 
sonal equipment.  The  value  of  the  endeavor 
to  serve  depends  greatly  upon  the  personal 
equipment  of  the  one  serving,  but  the  char- 
acter grows  best  when  absorbed  in  the  welfare 
of  others.  No  possibility  in  the  Adult  Bible 
Class  furnishes  a  stronger  reason  for  its  being 
than  the  service  it  may  render  in  applying 
religion  to  the  total  life  of  society.  It  may 
easily  be  the  leading  factor  in  putting  the 
church  into  the  consciousness  of  the  community. 
Vast  throngs  of  people  in  our  cities,  and  in 
the  aggregate  large  numbers  in  the  country 
places,  live  as  if  the  church  seldom  entered 
their  thought  or  influenced  their  life-plans. 
It  is  estimated  that  fully  half  of  the  people 
of  this  country  never  go  to  church. 

If  reUgion  is  to  give  character  to  our  civ- 
ilization, the  church  must  get  into  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  people  to  stay  and  to  sway. 

The  church  will  command  the  serious  atten- 
tion of  more  people  when  she  multiplies  her 
points  of  contact.  She  can  do  this  by  greatly 
increasing  the  number  of  her  interests.  In 
too  many  instances  the  church  has  limited  her 
interest  to  a  few  activities  that  were  com- 
106 


A  PROGRAM  OF  SERVICE 

monly  called  religious.  We  now  know  that 
religion  has  to  do  with  the  whole  of  life,  and  it 
is  clearly  within  the  province  of  the  church 
to  promote  the  physical  wellbeing,  the  social 
relations,  the  mental  growth,  as  well  as  the 
spiritual  culture  of  the  people.  The  modern 
concern  of  the  church  for  a  supervised  recrea- 
tional life  for  the  young  people,  or  better 
health  conditions  for  a  community,  or  industrial 
justice  for  the  laboring  classes,  is  not  at  the 
expense  of  the  concern  for  spiritual  culture, 
but  vitally  related  to  a  wholesome  spirituality. 
The  church  with  hands  outstretched  in  minis- 
try to  all  points  of  human  life,  individual  and 
social,  will  be  thought  about  and  talked  about; 
in  short,  it  will  be  the  first  among  the  insti- 
tutions of  society. 

It  is  not  necessary  that  the  church  should 
in  every  instance  provide  in  her  organization 
and  budget  for  all  the  forms  of  community 
service  that  are  required.  Many  other  organ- 
izations operate  in  this  field.  The  church 
should  recognize  these  as  her  alHes.  She  should 
foster  them  and  cooperate  with  them.  It  is 
not  what  particular  organization  shall  do  the 
work,  but  that  the  work  shall  be  done. 

The  eyes  of  the  world  will  be  turned  toward 
107 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

the  church  with  renewed  interest  when  it  is 
more  manifest  that  the  church  is  a  dispenser 
of  serving  energy  rather  than  a  voracious  con- 
sumer. The  popular  thought  is  not  entirely 
free  from  the  notion  that  the  church  is  an 
institution  to  be  supported  in  the  community 
for  appearance  sake.  Our  self-respect  as  a 
people  claiming  to  be  civilized  demands  that 
we  keep  up  the  church.  Just  as  the  Bible 
finds  a  place  in  many  a  home,  where  its  content 
is  never  read,  so  the  church  is  counted  indis- 
pensable to  a  community,  even  though  the 
people  never  think  of  using  it.  It  is  an  asset 
of  respectability.  This  superstitious  notion  of 
the  church  will  not  be  banished  until  the 
church  wears  everyday  clothes,  as  well  as 
fine  linen,  and  hits  hard  blows  for  social  right- 
eousness, and  proves  that  it  is  not  here  to  be 
ministered  unto  but  to  minister.  For  such 
an  opportunity  the  Organized  Bible  Class  has 
come  to  the  Kingdom. 

We  now  propose  to  submit  a  program  of 
service  wide  enough  in  its  scope,  and  yet 
definite  enough  in  its  details,  to  be  adopted  as 
a  working  basis  for  any  earnest  Bible  Class, 
whether  in  the  city  or  in  the  country. 

The  widening  circles  of  service  shown  here 
108 


A  PROGRAM  OF  SERVICE 

illustrate  the  field.  The  Bible  Class  in  the 
center  serves  first  within  the  church  and 
Sunday  school,  then  moves  out  to  the  com- 
munity, and  extends  its  cooperation  to  earth's 
remotest  bounds. 


CO 


What  are  some  of  the  things  that  may  be 
done? 

I.  Within  the  Church. 

.  1.  Provide  good  equipment  for  the  Sun- 
day  school. 
109 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

/    2.  Promote  and  practice  church  attend- 
ance. 
/  3.  Engage  in  personal  and  team  evan- 
gelism. 

4.  Socialize  the  church. 

5.  Put    business    methods    into    church 

finance. 

II.  In  the  Community. 

1.  Study  social  conditions. 

^2.  Work  for  wholesome  recreational  fa- 
cilities. 

3.  Work  to  remove  all  destructive 

agencies. 

4.  Promote  all  constructive  enterprises. 

5.  Relieve  distress  of  every  sort. 

6.  Seek  to  remove  causes  of  social  and 

industrial  distress. 

III.  In  World  Enterprises. 

;  1.  Study  missionary  problems. 

2.  Infuse  into  the  church  zeal  for  mis- 

sions. 

3.  Be  a  center  of  intercession. 

4.  Give  money  and  life  with  abandon. 

It   will   be   seen   that   this   program   is   not 
impracticable  by  the  following  quotations  from 
110 


A  PROGRAM  OF  SERVICE 

reports  received  from  classes  that  are  testing 
its  suggestions. 


Men's  Classes  Report 

254  Men— Class  made  1,637  calls  on  the  sick, 
added  ten  members  to  the  church,  and  paid 
$2,000  toward  a  new  Sunday  school  building. 

125  Men — Class  participates  in  political,  so- 
cial, and  religious  affairs;  put  out  slot  ma- 
chines; is  building  an  additional  Sunday 
school  room. 

163  Men — Class  engages  in  general  relief  work, 
and  during  the  past  year  conducted  a  re- 
vival campaign. 

146  Men — Class  holds  special  evangelistic  ser- 
vices every  week;  maintains  an  employment 
bureau;  carries  on  special  temperance  work. 

169  Men — Class  supports  a  boy  in  East  Africa; 
has  two  active  gospel  teams. 

120  Men — Class  supports  two  native  preachers 
in  India. 

252  Men — Brotherhood  class  supports  a 
preacher  in  India;  conducts  a  class  in  jail; 
maintains  a  poor  fund. 

22  Men — Class  provides  a  club  room  in  the 
basement  for  the  boys. 
Ill 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

46  Italians — Class  working  to  bring  others  of 

their  countrymen  into  the  class. 
14    Men — Class    placed    an    electric    lighting 

system  in  the  church;  conducted  social  and 

evangelistic  meetings. 
800  Men — Class   subscribed   and   paid  in  full 

$Q^5  on  the  church  debt;  supports  a  native 

missionary  in  India. 
^19   Men — Class   provided   the   church   with   a 

furnace,  chancel  rails,  and  pulpit  platform; 

provided  1,250  square  feet  of  cement  side- 
walk. 
225  Men — The  most  notable  thing  done  by  the 

class  was  the  Easter  missionary  offering  of 

$1,950;    committee    on    employment    found 

work  for  100  men. 
^  96  Men — Class  increased  its  membership  800 

per   cent;   took   charge   of   Sunday   evening 

service;   effected   an   association   with   other 

Bible  Classes  of  the  city. 
30  Men — Class  supports  a  Chinese  student  in 
^      Peking  University;  sent  100  Testaments  to 

wounded  soldiers  in  European  hospitals;  gave 

Christmas  presents  to  poor  and  sent  flowers 

to  the  sick. 
Large  Class — 169  men  added  to  the  church; 

armory  rented  one  night  each  week  for  the 
112 


A  PROGRAM  OF  SERVICE 

recreational  use  of  the  boys;  "white  gifts" 
for  the  poor  at  Christmas. 

100  Men — Class  built  and  furnished  new  room 
for  class  at  a  cost  of  $1,700. 

45  Men — Brotherhood  Class  added  twenty-five 
new  members;  gave  $90  to  church  expenses; 
organized  an  octet  from  the  class  for  musical 
occasions;  five  members  of  class  were  con- 
verted. 

80  Men — In  a  rural  community  the  class  has 
nearly  every  available  man  enrolled;  class 
built  a  $300  concrete  dam  across  a  small 
stream,  making  a  swimming  pool  for  summer 
and  a  skating  pond  for  winter.  The  young 
people  believe  in  the  religion  of  these  men 
and  follow  their  leadership. 

Women's  Classes  Report 

300  Women— Gave  $1,000  for  church  building; 

engage  in  social  work  among  sick  and  poor. 
14    Women — In    large    city    maintains    Home 

Department  of  seventy-five  members — also  a 

flower  mission;  supplied  1,500  bouquets  for 

the  sick  during  the  year. 
80  Women — Class  in  small  town  started  and 

maintained    a    kindergarten    department    of 
113 


A' 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

the  Sunday  school;  does  systematic  calling 
on  the  sick. 

95  Women — Industrial' center,  class  systemat- 
ically looks  after  the  strange  wage-earning 
girls  who  come  to  the  city  for  employment. 

50  Women — In  small  city,  class  made  921 
calls,  thirty-eight  donations  to  charity;  sup- 
ports a  native  pastor  in  India. 

20  Women — Class  widely  scattered  in  the 
country  supplied  clothing  to  children  in  the 
city  and  sent  Christmas  presents. 

150  Women — Organized  a  personal  workers' 
league;  conducted  socials;  entertained  the  old 
people  of  the  church;  seventy-five  per  cent 
of  the  members  did  not  attend  Sunday 
school  prior  to  joining  the  class. 

17  Women — Country  class,  helped  to  support 
a  Syrian  mission  in  a  neighboring  city;  paid 
$20  to  the  church  budget;  purchased  hymnals 
and  hymn  boards  for  the  church;  sent  forty 
Testaments  to  the  soldiers  in  Europe. 

32  Women — In  small  town,  out  of  this  class 
has  come  the  one  teacher  training  class  of 
the  Sunday  school;  three  of  the  four  teachers 
teaching  the  Graded  Lessons  came  from  this 
class. 

23  Women — Furnished  milk  for  mission  kinder- 
114 


A  PROGRAM  OF  SERVICE 

garten;  gave  27  white  children  a  day's  out- 
ing; did  the  same  for  29  colored  children. 

37  Women — Class  has  given  $20  a  year  to  a 
hospital  for  the  past  four  years;  supported  a 
scholarship  in  China;  gave  $10  to  help  a 
needy  family. 

8  Women — In  the  country,  bought  a  new  Bible 
for  the  pulpit;  provided  money  for  new  roof 
for  the  church;  secured  funds  for  painting 
the  church. 

53  Women — Paid  $10  toward  Deaconess  fund, 
$10  to  fund  for  buying  robes  for  church 
choir;  distributed  Home  Department  Quar- 
terlies and  visited  the  members;  gave  flower- 
ing plant  to  each  "shut-in." 

113  Women — Have  gained  thirty-one  souls  for 
Christ  and  are  praying  and  working  that  they 
may  double  next  year. 

40  Women — Mothers'  Class  visit  "shut-in" 
mothers;  raised  special  fund  for  missions; 
gave  social  evening  for  teen-age  classes;  was 
means  of  organizing  men's  class;  have  after- 
noon meetings  once  a  month,  with  program 
helpful  to  mothers. 

137  Women — Community  work  among  the 
poor,  with  much  care  given  to  unfortunate 
girls;  $175  given  to  the  church  for  expenses; 
115 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

$10  for  coal  for  needy  family;  have  made 
11,000  calls;  300  plants  and  flowers  sent  to 
sick  and  to  hospitals. 

65  Women — Gave  a  progressive  supper  visiting 
"neutral"  countries,  leaving  the  United  States 
for  Hawaii,  thence  to  China,  Greenland,  in  a 
trip  around  the  world.  It  was  an  informing 
occasion.  Furnish  a  teachers'  substitute 
group,  from  which  the  superintendent  may 
call  a  teacher  when  one  is  needed. 

216  Women — A  bazaar  was  held  from  which 
$100  was  realized;  the  Mercy  and  Help 
Committee  directs  in  the  care  of  the  poor 
and  the  sick;  550  calls  were  made  at  hos- 
pital and  on  poor  families;  216  articles  of 
clothing  were  given  to  the  needy;  81  pack- 
ages of  groceries  and  153  bouquets  were 
given.  The  class  is  divided  into  groups  of 
twelve,  each  with  a  superintendent. 

54  Women — In  small  village,  the  class  provides 
committees  to  welcome  strangers  at  each 
church  service;  another  to  call  on  the  sick; 
this  month  we  are  caring  for  a  tramp  who 
lost  a  foot  trying  to  steal  a  ride.  Our  motto 
is  "Alive  and  Doing." 

37  Women — Paid  $100  on  pledge  to  new  church 
and  subscribed  $50  more.  Realized  $110  on 
116 


A  PROGRAM  OF  SERVICE 

a  quilt  we  pieced  and  quilted,  securing  names 
which  were  embroidered  on  the  quilt. 

Mixed  Classes  Report 

Raised  $73  for  repairs  on  church.  Put  in  gas 
system  in  church,  furnishing  the  kitchen  and 
parlors  of  the  church. 
JPurnish  flowers  for  pulpit;  provide  clothes  for 
child  at  orphanage;  made  36  gallons  of  apple 
butter  for  orphanage;  sent  50  dozen  eggs  to 
hospital. 

Presented  large  painting  to  Sunday  school;  paid 
part  of  church  debt;  sent  box  of  clothing 
to  orphanage;  took  flowers  to  sick  persons; 
brought  a  number  of  adults  into  Sunday 
school. 

Every  member  worked  to  make  the  town  dry; 
great  victory  in  a  town  that  had  been  a 
liquor  stronghold  for  forty  years. 

Bought  a  new  organ  for  the  church;  visit  the 
sick,  taking  flowers  to  them. 

The  builders  have  finished  a  room  in  the  base- 
ment for  the  meetings  of  the  class,  at  a  cost 
of  $600.  They  help  on  all  benevolent  work 
of  the  church. 

Fifty   new   members   brought   into   the   class; 
117 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

money  and  supplies  furnished  for  war  vic- 
tims; also  for  missions;  class  prepared  to 
furnish  teachers  for  Sunday  school  as  they 
are  needed. 

Class  supports  a  native  missionary  in  India. 

Class  of  eighteen  in  the  country  secured  enough 
\y  young  people  to  organize  a  new  class;  this 
class  succeeded  so  well  that  it  was  able  to 
influence  the  organization  of  four  other 
classes;  the  social  life  of  the  young  people 
especially  cultivated. 

Class  gave  bolt  of  outing  flannel  to  home  for 
unfortunate  girls;  does  systematic  calHng; 
our  motto  is  "Work  to  Win." 

Class  gave  a  food  sale  for  benefit  of  working 
girls'  home;  gave  toward  fitting  up  room  for 
vacation  home  for  poor  girls;  made  and  gave 
a  whole  layette  to  young  mother  whose 
husband  was  out  of  work. 

QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  Is  a  program  of  service  a  help  or  a  hindrance 

to    the    educational    value    of    an    Adult 
Bible  Class? 

2.  In  what  ways  may  the  Adult  Bible  Class 

relate   the   entire   church   to   community 
service? 

118 


A  PROGRAM  OF  SERVICE 

3.  To   what  extent  does  the  average  church 

need  to  be  aroused  to  the  insistent  needs 
of  the  community? 

4.  What  are  some  of  the  services   an  Adult 

Bible  Class  may  render  in  the  church  and 
Sunday  school? 

5.  In    the    community?      In    connection    with 

world  enterprises? 


119 


CHAPTER  IX 

Men  are  made  for  fellowship,  and  if  they  do  not 
find  it  in  the  Church  of  God,  they  will  seek  it  where 
it  may  be  found.  Men  live  by  fellowship.  It  is 
only  when  hearts  and  hands  come  together  that 
existence  passes  into  life. — Charles  E.  Jefferson. 

Brotherhood  is  what  the  world  is  clamoring  for, 
and  it  is  an  example  of  brotherhood  which  the 
Christian  Church  must  give. — Charles  E.  Jefferson. 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE  BIBLE  CLASS  A  BROTHERHOOD 

Eliminating  from  our  thought  organization, 
principles,  movement,  and  a  lot  of  other  mod- 
ifying terms,  do  we  find  grounds  for  asserting 
the  reality  of  brotherhood? 

Individual  assertion  is  so  strong,  and  the 
variety  of  individual  distinctions  is  so  great, 
that  it  is  remarkable  that  groups  of  individuals 
should  ever  abide  together  harmoniously.  They 
do.  They  cooperate  with  marked  consideration 
for  each  other's  rights  and  needs.  Mag- 
nanimity appears  in  large  proportion.  Service 
to  the  point  of  sacrifice  for  others  is  by  no 
means  rare.  The  elements  that  constitute 
love  for  one  another  are  sufficiently  widespread 
to  warrant  the  claim  that  there  is  brotherhood 
among  men.  Much  in  the  life  of  the  world 
to-day  accentuates  the  opposite,  but  at  the 
same  time  these  untoward  conditions  by  the 
law  of  contrast  enhance  in  the  thought  of 
men  the  inestimable  value  of  real  brotherhood. 
123 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

Christian  men  are  challenged  as  never  before 
to  exemplify  in  all  their  relations  with  their 
fellows  the  true  spirit  of  brotherhood.  The 
business  of  being  brothers  may  not  call  for  a 
headquarters,  for  clerks  to  record  and  tabulate 
results,  for  a  modern  system  of  publicity,  or 
the  investment  of  large  capital,  but  it  is  one 
of  the  most  profitable  kinds  of  business  in 
which  any  man  can  engage.  Its  results  are 
priceless. 

The  great  religious  need  of  the  hour  is  the 
practice  of  brotherly  love.  The  fine  courtesies 
and  thoughtful  kindnesses  practiced  in  the 
Christian  home  put  that  institution  in  the 
forefront  as  the  producer  of  saving  character. 

It  was  the  practical  love  which  makes  a  real 
Christian  family  which  Jesus  sought  to  extend 
to  all  when  he  said,  "For  whosoever  shall 
do  the  will  of  God,  the  same  is  my  brother, 
and  my  sister,  and  mother." 

While  the  small  group  in  the  Christian  home 
should  demonstrate  the  practical  working  of 
the  spirit  of  love,  the  demonstration  should 
not  be  confined  to  the  home.  Our  sympathy 
should  be  reenforced  so  that  the  sorrows  and 
misfortunes  of  those  with  whom  we  have  any 
social  or  business  relations  whatever  should 
124 


THE  BIBLE  CLASS  A  BROTHERHOOD 

move  us  to  share  their  burdens.  Members  of 
the  same  church,  associates  in  the  same  bus- 
iness, whether  employer  or  employee,  neigh- 
bors in  the  same  block,  should  exercise  the 
most  helpful  interest  toward  each  other.  Many 
encouraging  signs  exist,  showing  that  this 
brotherly  spirit  is  extending  its  conquest,  but 
flagrant  conditions  show  that  the  fountain  of 
Christian  sympathy  will  have  to  be  greatly 
strengthened  if  the  stream  is  to  bear  its  heal- 
ing virtues  throughout  the  social  and  industrial 
order.  If  the  spirit  of  real  brotherhood  has  not 
yet  effected  the  conquest  of  the  family,  the 
church,  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  the  home-land, 
what  shall  be  said  of  the  goal  of  world  brother- 
hood.? If  the  source  of  spiritual  sympathy  has 
not  been  strong  enough  in  us  to  reach  out  to 
those  whose  lives  are  interwoven  with  ours, 
how  shall  it  reach  to  the  uttermost  parts  of 
the  earth.?  It  is  true,  as  Dr.  Robert  Speer  has 
so  well  said,  that  our  modern  commerce  and 
wonderful  system  of  communication  have  made 
of  the  whole  world  one  neighborhood,  and  it 
now  remains  for  the  Church  of  Christ  to  make 
it  one  brotherhood. 

This  enormous  task  will  be  achieved  only 
by  practicing  always  and  everywhere,  at  home 
125 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

and  abroad,  the  spirit  of  brotherly  love.  The 
sympathy  that  shall  bind  all  peoples  into  one 
family  of  God  grows  strong  only  by  prayer 
and  practice. 

Real  brotherhood  Is  the  goal  of  Christianity. 
Jesus  put  great  stress  upon  the  spirit  and 
practice  of  brotherly  love.  He  prayed  that 
all  might  be  one,  even  as  he  and  the  Father 
were  one,  in  order  that  the  world  might  know 
that  he  was  sent  from  God.  The  most  con- 
vincing evidence  of  the  divinity  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion  is  the  relation  of  real  brotherhood. 
Jesus  said,  "By  this  shall  all  men  know  that 
ye  are  my  disciples,  if  ye  love  one  another." 
Brotherhood  is  the  badge  of  Christian  disciple- 
ship.  John  mentioned  an  important  evi- 
dential value  of  brotherhood  when  he  said, 
"We  know  that  we  have  passed  out  of  death 
into  life,  because  we  love  the  brethren.  He 
that  loveth  not  abideth  in  death." 

Dr.  Charles  E.  Jefferson  says:  "The  air  is 
full  of  talk  about  brotherhood,  but  brotherhood 
does  not  come  by  poetic  quotations  and  rhap- 
sodical orating.  Brotherhood  is  a  spiritual 
creation.  It  is  a  fellowship  of  souls  based  upon 
a  fellowship  with  God's  only  begotten  Son." 

Brotherhood  is  something  larger  than  any 
126 


THE  BIBLE  CLASS  A  BROTHERHOOD 

organization;  it  is  a  spirit  to  be  promoted,  an 
interpretation  of  life  to  be  practiced.  If  every 
man  were  related  to  every  other  man  as  a  real 
brother,  the  kingdom  of  heaven  would  indeed 
be  at  hand. 

Unfortunately,  the  movement  toward  uni- 
versal brotherhood  must  overcome  some  very 
obstinate  barriers.  The  spirit  of  brotherhood 
has  a  right  to  look  to  the  thousands  of  groups 
of  Christian  men  meeting  every  Sabbath  around 
the  Bible  to  do  much  toward  clearing  the  way 
for  its  universal  triumph. 

We  cannot  doubt  the  persistent  sway  of 
selfishness  in  the  human  heart.  No  specific 
experience  of  divine  grace  seems  to  remove 
one  from  its  subtle  attacks.  The  direct  work 
of  grace  may  be  greatly  helped  by  each  man 
conceiving  of  his  personality  as  including  the 
group  of  which  he  is  a  unit.  He  can  cultivate 
the  idea  that  he  is  more  than  soul  and  body, 
that  his  possessions,  his  family,  his  class  group, 
are  all  a  part  of  his  personality.  If  he  identi- 
fies himself  inseparably  with  the  experiences 
of  the  class  that  has  organized  for  mutual 
help,  his  selfishness  is  swallowed  up  in  his 
enlarged  personality.  His  planning  and  his 
actions  involve  every  member  of  his  new  social 
127 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

body.  Every  pain  or  hardship  experienced  by 
any  member  of  his  new  federation  is  his  by 
adoption.  Every  element  of  strength  in  this 
social  personality  is  his  also.  Men  of  the  Bible 
classes  may  fight  selfishness  and  promote 
brotherhood  by  cultivating  the  group  con- 
sciousness. 

It  is  amazing  what  mutual  distrust  there  is 
among  men.  Secret  diplomacy  is  not  limited 
to  the  nations  of  the  earth.  Individuals  who 
ought  to  trust  each  other  absolutely,  often 
find  themselves  inquiring  into  each  other's 
motives  and  wondering  what  personal  benefits 
the  other  expects  from  certain  proposed  under- 
takings. If  Christian  men  banded  together  for 
Bible  study  and  for  winning  other  men  to 
Christ  cannot  show  the  glory  of  open  diplomacy, 
of  mutual  trust,  where  shall  we  look  for  it? 
Real  brotherhood  will  be  seriously  delayed  un- 
less we  can  overcome  the  spirit  of  distrust. 
The  open  life  has  no  nooks  for  the  beginnings 
of  conspiracy. 

Another  barrier  to  brotherhood  is  super- 
sensitiveness.  The  thin-skinned  individual  finds 
it  painful  to  mingle  freely  with  his  fellows  on 
the  basis  of  brotherhood.  The  inevitable  jars 
and  knocks  and  jibes  are  well-nigh  fatal.  A 
128 


THE  BIBLE  CLASS  A  BROTHERHOOD 

certain  form  of  hazing  is  what  some  people 
need,  but  it  must  be  administered  with  great 
skill  and  sympathy.  While  the  weak  brother 
must  not  be  permitted  to  stop  the  procession 
entirely,  he  is  worth  the  patient  attention  of 
at  least  a  detachment  of  experts  in  the  fine  art 
of  changing  raw  recruits  into  veterans. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  most  formidable  obstacles 
to  the  promotion  of  real  brotherhood  to-day 
is  the  inequahties  of  life.  Those  things  which 
we  are  accustomed  to  call  the  goods  of  life 
are  by  no  means  equally  distributed.  Those 
who  have  abundance  are  not  always  careful 
to  exercise  modesty  and  humility.  Those  who 
have  small  possessions  are  not  always  gifted 
with  right  perspective  and  are  easily  envious 
and  jealous.  We  can  do  much  toward  over- 
coming this  difficulty  by  viewing  hfe  in  the 
light  of  duties  and  responsibilities  instead  of 
rights  and  privileges.  Possessions  have  com- 
mensurate responsibihties.  The  selfish  rich  are 
not  to  be  envied,  but  to  be  pitied. 

Christian  men  should  meet  with  each  other 
in  a  fellowship  deeper  than  conventional  or 
material  distinctions.  Our  common  manhood 
is  the  level  on  which  the  points  of  fellowship 
converge. 

1S9 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

The  Organized  Men's  Bible  Class  invites 
into  its  membership  men  of  all  shades  of  belief 
and  of  all  sorts  of  vocations.  The  social  atmos- 
phere of  the  class  makes  for  the  spirit  of  brother- 
hood. The  subjects  naturally  discussed  in  the 
class  contribute  to  a  broadening  of  sympathy 
and  to  an  increasing  of  interest  in  all  move- 
ments for  human  welfare.  The  frequent  gather- 
ings for  social  purposes  break  down  barriers 
that  tend  to  misunderstanding  and  make  for 
lasting  friendships.  The  many  specific  services 
rendered  by  the  class  to  the  needy  neighbors 
greatly  aid  the  progress  of  the  spirit  of  brother- 
hood. 

QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  To  what  extent  do  "Brotherhoods"  illustrate 

brotherhood? 

2.  What  is  the  importance  of  brotherhood  as 

a  goal  of  Christianity.^ 

3.  What  are  some  of  the  obstinate  barriers  to 

the  practice  of  brotherhood? 

4.  Discuss    the    fraternal    opportunities    of    a 

Brotherhood  Bible  Class. 


130 


CHAPTER  X 

It  is  no  part  of  religion  to  compel  religion,  whose 
essential  is  that  it  be  accepted  freely  and  not  through 
force. — Tertullian. 

To  the  weak  became  I  as  weak,  that  I  might 
gain  the  weak;  I  am  made  all  things  to  all  men, 
that  I  might  by  all  means  save  some. — Saint  Paul. 

Reaching  one  person  at  a  time  is  the  best  way 
of  reaching  all  the  world  in  time. — H.  C.  Trumbull. 


CHAPTER  X 
RECRUITING  FOR  THE  KINGDOM 

An  ardent  Sunday  school  man  often  spices 
his  speech  with  something  hke  this:  "We  are 
told  that  the  big  business  of  the  church  is 
saving  sinners.  I  say  it  is  not.  The  big  business 
of  the  church  is  saving  the  children  and  youth 
from  becoming  sinners." 

More  and  more  the  church  is  coming  to  act 
upon  the  pohcy  that  childhood  belongs  to  God 
and  ought  to  be  preempted  for  him  by  the 
church.  We  must  conserve  and  train  human 
life  through  all  its  stages  of  development. 
All  this  we  steadfastly  believe,  and  more.  We 
believe  that  even  the  human  derelicts,  the  sin- 
blighted  fragments  of  humanity,  represent 
values  for  the  kingdom  of  God  that  must  be 
restored.  In  this  day,  when  the  outstanding 
characteristic  of  the  industrial  world  is  econ- 
omy of  resources,  when  the  scraps  and  waste 
of  material  values  are  put  to  good  uses,  it 
would  ill  become  the  workers  in  human  values 
to  ignore  even  the  least  promising  group  of 
unenhsted  people.  The  victory  before  the 
133 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

Church  of  Jesus  Christ  is  not  such  as  can  be 
won  by  an  elect  army  of  disciplined  troops. 
Humanity  is  involved.  Every  person  lost  is 
so  much  defeat  to  the  church.  The  ends  of 
reHgion  being  character  and  service,  only  those 
who  participate  in  the  religious  processes  can 
share  in  the  ends. 

The  church  has  tried  a  great  variety  of  ways 
and  means  for  bringing  the  unenlisted  groups 
of  people  into  vital  relationship  with  the  church. 
The  method  known  as  "the  protracted  meeting" 
or  "the  revival  campaign"  has  secured  large 
numbers  of  religious  professions.  In  many 
instances  the  number  of  converts  actually 
"planted  in  the  house  of  the  Lord"  has  bee  i 
pitiably  small  compared  with  the  number  re- 
ported as  the  result  of  the  campaign.  The 
Organized  Bible  Class  is  proving  to  be  an 
effective  means  for  the  conservation  of  the 
results  of  the  revival  meetings.  It  is  also 
effective  in  completing  much  work  that  the 
revival  only  began. 

Many  Bible  Classes  are  making  the  recruit- 
ing business  their  chief  concern.  The  members 
are  urged  to  do  definite  personal  work  with 
their  unconverted  friends.  Gospel  teams  are 
formed  of  members  of  men's  classes.  These 
134 


RECRUITING  FOR  THE  KINGDOM 

teams  of  laymen  go  to  other  churches  for  week- 
end evangehstic  services.  In  Kansas  and 
adjoining  states  marked  success  has  attended 
the  meetings  held  by  these  teams.  Strong 
business  men  who  remained  aloof  from  the 
church  in  spite  of  all  the  usual  appeals  have 
been  won  by  the  straightforward,  manly  con- 
fessions of  the  earnest  men  who  know  how  to 
present  the  claims  of  Christ  in  terms  of  every- 
day life.  Their  method  has  been  not  to  preach 
but  to  bear  witness. 

One  of  the  effective  features  in  Mr.  Sunday's 
evangelistic  campaigns  is  the  support  given  by 
the  men's  Bible  Classes.  They  attend  often 
in  bodies.  They  take  with  them  the  men  who 
have  not  accepted  Christ.  The  Christian  men 
are  alert  for  the  opportunity  to  help  their 
friends  to  a  decision,  speaking  to  them,  or  even 
going  forward  with  them. 

After  one  of  these  great  awakenings  in  a  city, 
the  Bible  Classes  are  found  to  be  the  best- 
adapted  agency  in  the  church  by  which  to 
follow  up  the  work  of  the  revival.  The  new 
converts  need  nothing  so  much  as  the  fellow- 
ship and  instruction  as  well  as  the  kinds  of 
service  afforded  by  the  Bible  Class. 

One    of    the    most    hopeful    services    being 
135 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

rendered  by  the  Adult  Bible  Class  movement 
may  be  called  the  naturalizing  of  religion. 
Bondage  to  conventionality  and  imitation  has 
greatly  weakened  the  good  influence  of  many 
well-meaning  people.  They  have  wondered 
why  their  representation  of  religion  was  not 
more  attractive  or  commanding.  They  began 
the  religious  life  with  such  a  sense  of  its  sacred- 
ness,  that  they  adopted  "holy  tones"  and  "pious 
phrases."  Religion  was  thought  to  be  some- 
thing apart  from  everyday  life.  The  prevailing 
labels  were  clung  to  as  if  essential  to  a  claim  of 
being  religious.  This  attitude  toward  religion 
is  rapidly  changing.  The  "odor  of  sanctity" 
is  giving  place  to  the  "fragrance  of  reality." 
Religion  is  inseparably  involved  in  our  daily 
living.  Social  hunger,  mental  outreach,  and 
physical  need  must  find  their  satisfaction  with- 
out contradicting  the  essentials  of  religion. 
There  is  nothing  quite  so  fundamental  to  spir- 
ituality as  reality.  A  man  who  is  not  genuine 
cannot  grow  the  Christian  graces  and  the 
fruits  of  the  Spirit.  Distinctive  religious  labels 
are  not  usually  the  signs  of  abundant  religion, 
but,  rather,  the  marks  of  a  straitened,  im- 
poverished religion.  Robust,  wholesome  re- 
ligion expresses  itself  in  terms  and  with  tones 
136 


RECRUITING  FOR  THE  KINGDOM 

that  belong  in  the  street  or  in  the  shop.  It 
expresses  itself  during  the  week  as  fittingly  as 
on  Sunday.  Its  great  benefits  and  require- 
ments are  as  suitable  topics  for  conversation 
among  men  as  business  or  politics.  It  is  no 
more  incongruous  for  a  Christian  man  to  press 
the  claims  of  Christ  upon  an  unenlisted  neighbor 
as  they  ride  or  walk  together,  than  to  seek  to 
interest  him  in  a  business  enterprise.  The 
St.  Andrew's  Cross  is  authority  for  the  story 
that  two  business  men  lunched  together  one 
day  at  the  Blackstone  Hotel,  Chicago.  One 
was  an  earnest  churchman.  The  other  was  not. 
They  were  accustomed  to  use  the  lunch  hour 
for  the  consideration  of  some  large  business 
enterprise  in  which  both  were  interested.  On 
this  day  the  churchman  looked  across  the  table 
at  his  friend  and  without  changing  his  tone 
or  the  expression  of  his  face  said,  "Will,  why 
in  the  world  don't  you  give  your  heart  to  the 
Lord?  A  man  with  your  talent  in  the  business 
world  ought  to  be  in  the  big  business  of  the 
kingdom  of  God."  Will  replied  that  no  man 
had  ever  put  it  up  to  him  after  that  fashion. 
His  friend  did  not  press  him  unduly  at  that 
time,  but  followed  up  the  lead  until  Will  was 
converted  within  two  weeks.  Then  Will  went 
137 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

out  and  within  two  months  personally  inter- 
viewed one  hundred  and  forty  of  his  friends 
and  associates,  winning  seventy-five  of  them  to 
Christ.  One  of  these  at  least,  a  prominent 
railroad  man,  caught  the  same  spirit  of  per- 
sonal work,  for  when  he  was  seriously  injured 
in  a  wreck  he  won  the  surgeon  who  operated 
upon  him  to  Christ. 

One  pastor  who  had  tried  the  usual  revival 
methods  with  but  meager  results,  decided  to 
pursue  a  method  which  he  chose  to  call  "cold- 
blooded evangelism."  The  title  is  a  protest 
against  the  notion  that  the  "warming-up" 
processes  so  often  employed  are  necessary  before 
men  can  be  won  to  Christ.  This  pastor  made 
an  appointment  with  one  of  the  busiest  manu- 
facturers in  the  city  to  see  him  on  business. 
It  turned  out  that  it  was  the  pastor's  business 
to  press  the  claims  of  Christ  upon  that  man. 
The  man  appreciated  the  interpretation  the 
pastor  put  upon  his  calling,  gave  him  hospitable 
audience,  and  yielded  to  the  plea  that  he 
should  give  his  hfe  to  the  service  of  Christ 
and  the  church.  This  kind  of  straightforward, 
man-fashion  work  was  kept  up  through  the 
year  by  the  pastor  and  the  men  in  league  with 
him,  with  the  result  that  more  than  one  hundred 
138 


RECRUITING  FOR  THE  KINGDOM 

and    fifty    persons    were    won   to    Christ    and 
joined  the  church. 

Another  characteristic  of  the  evangelism  car- 
ried on  by  the  members  of  the  Adult  Classes 
is  that  of  definiteness.  The  indefinite  interest 
in  "humanity"  or  "the  world"  is  being  focused 
upon  a  given  individual.  His  Christian  neigh- 
bor pays  the  price  of  thoughtfulness  and 
friendly  intercourse  that  enables  him  to  under- 
stand the  man's  point  of  view,  to  appreciate 
the  forces  that  have  kept  him  from  accepting 
Christ.  With  this  knowledge  of  the  man's 
condition  he  is  able  to  make  an  effective  appeal. 
Men  who  are  successful  in  winning  others  to 
Christ  are  finding  that  the  worth-while  men 
like  a  perfectly  frank  approach.  Some  people 
with  the  best  of  intentions  have  been  misled 
by  the  figure  of  the  fisherman  and  his  art. 
They  have  endeavored  to  conceal  the  hook,  to 
catch  folks  with  guile,  to  use  various  methods  of 
exploitation.  They  seem  to  forget  that  catch- 
ing fish  and  winning  men  to  Christ  are  two 
very  different  things.  We  catch  fish  to  hurt 
them.  We  win  men  to  help  them.  We  deceive 
fish  to  catch  them.  We  should  never  attempt 
any  sort  of  subterfuge  in  seeking  to  win  men  to 
a  life  of  allegiance  to  Jesus  Christ. 
139 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

One  of  the  great  needs  of  our  day  is  a  host 
of  men  and  women  who  may  excel  as  religious 
conversationalists,  who  are  able  to  direct  the 
table  talk  to  the  benefits  of  the  Christian  life 
and  the  insistent  claims  of  Christ  upon  our 
time  and  talents. 

What  finer  art  for  the  millions  of  members 
of  Adult  Bible  Classes  to  practice  than  such  a 
simple  and  yet  effective  method  of  recruiting 
for  the  kingdom  of  God? 

As  the  first  of  January,  1917,  drew  near,  a 
certain  pastor,  who  had  made  an  enviable 
record  in  personal  evangelism  during  the  five 
years  of  his  pastorate  in  his  present  church, 
conceived  the  plan  to  call  for  at  least  seventeen 
people  who  would  compose  a  "seventeen'* 
class  to  be  received  into  the  church  on  the 
first  Sunday  of  1917.  In  carrying  out  his  plan 
this  pastor  first  selected  his  seventeen  prospects 
and  prayed  them  indelibly  upon  his  own  heart, 
then  he  called  seventeen  workers  into  confer- 
ence; each  of  these  was  asked  to  form  a  prayer 
group  of  his  own  selection  of  from  three  to 
seven  persons  in  number.  Each  prayer  group 
settled  upon  one,  two,  or  three  prospects  for 
whom  they  would  pray  and  work. 

On  the  Sunday  when  the  class  was  received 
140 


RECRUITING  FOR  THE  KINGDOM 

into  church  membership  it  was  found  that 
twenty-eight  had  been  won  to  Christ.  Four- 
teen of  these  were  men,  including  the  superin- 
tendent of  schools,  the  principal  of  the  high 
school,  and  the  athletic  coach  in  the  high 
school.  In  relating  the  incident  the  pastor 
says,  "One  man,  a  grocer,  when  the  pastor 
was  in  grips  with  him  in  his  office,  called  in  a 
clerk,  and  the  two  made  their  surrender  to 
Christ,  so  that  when  this  business  man  stood 
at  the  chancel  of  the  church  he  had  in  that 
very  class  a  trophy  of  his  evangelistic  appeal." 

QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  What  is  the  measure  of  demand  for  adult 

evangelism. f^ 

2.  Discuss   the   advantages   of   securing  evan- 

gelistic results  by  educational  processes. 

3.  To   what   extent   has  the    "Gospel   Team" 

method  of  evangelism  been  successful? 

4.  What  is  meant  by  "naturalizing  religion"? 

How   does   it   aid   in   recruiting   for   the 
Kingdom? 

5.  Illustrate  "cold-blooded  evangelism." 

6.  Show    the    advantages    of    definiteness    in 

reaching  men. 

141 


CHAPTER  XI 

The  three  dominant  spiritual  notes  of  our  day 
are  unity,  reahty,  and  universality. — J,  Campbell 
White, 

The  conviction  is  growing  very  fast,  especially 
among  the  laymen,  that  the  church  has  got  to  ad- 
just itself  to  the  new  cooperative  and  unifying 
tendencies  of  the  day.  The  great  sin  of  our  day 
is  waste. — Frederick  Lynch. 


CHAPTER  XI 
FEDERATION 

Protestantism  is  often  criticized  for  present- 
ing to  the  world  so  many  independent  denom- 
inations. Some  have  called  it  a  scandal. 
Others  have  sought  to  shame  the  situation  by 
holding  up  our  Lord's  prayer,  "That  they  all 
may  be  one;  as  thou,  Father,  art  in  me,  and  I 
in  thee, .  .  .  that  they  may  be  one,  even  as 
we  are  one."  Very  noticeable  progress  has 
been  made  in  recent  years  toward  a  more 
compact  organization  of  the  Protestant 
churches. 

The  same  principles  that  are  involved  in 
relating  church  bodies  to  each  other  are  in- 
volved in  bringing  the  nations  of  the  earth 
into  an  international  unity.  Undoubtedly,  the 
bringing  together  of  unrelated  institutions, 
churches,  and  nations  is  the  spirit  of  the  times. 
The  present  upheaval  of  Europe,  into  which 
the  United  States  has  at  last  been  drawn,  is 
being  interpreted  as  the  final  throes  of  the  war 
spirit,  a  breaking  up  of  barriers  that  will  be 
145 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

followed  by  a  greater  internationalism  than  the 
world  has  ever  known. 

Whatever  real  progress  has  been  made  toward 
the  unity  of  the  organized  forces  of  Christianity 
has  observed  the  principle  of  federation  rather 
than  amalgamation.  Diversity  is  not  to  be 
deplored.  Practical  unity  must  provide  for 
flexibility  and  initiative  on  the  part  of  the 
constituent  units. 

Mere  expansion  has  its  perils.  Magnitude 
is  by  no  means  the  only  mark  of  importance. 
We  must  give  attention  to  the  units  that  make 
up  the  aggregate.  The  lure  of  the  universal 
is  strong  and  we  must  be  on  our  guard  against 
its  subtle  fallacy.  World  movements  offer 
escape  from  narrowness  and  provincialism,  but 
they  may  fall  to  pieces  of  their  own  weight 
unless  great  care  is  taken  to  maintain  a  high 
standard  of  quality  in  the  lesser  units  wherein 
reside  the  real  strength  and  safety  of  the  larger 
organization. 

When  we  reflect  we  see  that  the  individual 
is  the  substantial  unit  in  all  our  great  social 
institutions  and  should  be  the  item  of  chief 
concern  in  constructing  a  Christian  world. 
Individuals  are  first  built  into  small  groups, 
which  must  be  so  tempered  through  testing 
146 


FEDERATION 

that  they  take  on  distinct  individuality  before 
they  take  on  the  larger  social  organism.  Any 
grouping  of  the  individuals  that  sacrifices  the 
integrity  and  responsibihty  of  the  individual 
is  in  the  direction  of  weakness,  not  strength. 
There  should  be  a  reciprocity  of  service  going 
on  all  the  time  between  the  individual  and 
the  group  to  which  it  belongs. 

There  is  something  fascinating  about  the 
goal  of  one  universal  Christian  Church.  To 
grasp  such  an  idea  in  the  sweep  of  one's  vision 
is  exhilarating.  All  constitutional  diversities 
are  in  danger  of  being  overlooked  in  the  light 
of  the  glorious  fallacy  that  "all  men  are  created 
equal."  Under  the  spell  of  a  rapidly  approach- 
ing "oneness"  for  a  world  of  factions  there  is 
scant  patience  with  those  who  still  insist  upon 
strengthening  the  lesser  units.  They  are  called 
individualists  or  denominationalists.  However 
severely  they  may  be  criticized  for  not  seeing 
the  millennium  in  a  homogeneous  unity  of  hu- 
manity, and  for  not  joining  the  optimists  in 
shouting  it  on,  they  are  nevertheless  the  con- 
servators of  real  progress  toward  a  unity  that 
shall  have  strength  and  permanency. 

The  sooner  we  rid  our  minds  of  the  per- 
sisting notion  that  sameness  is  essential  to 
147 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

oneness,  the  sooner  we  will  be  able  to  see  that 
Christian  unity  does  not  contemplate  likeness, 
nor  equality  of  talent,  in  the  units  that  are 
to  enter  into  it.  We  shall  be  able  to  see  also 
that  Christian  unity  does  not  depend  upon 
the  sacrifice  of  denominational  distinctiveness. 
Christian  unity  contemplates  the  widest  di- 
versity. No  gift  of  grace  has  ever  been  be- 
stowed that  so  radically  changed  its  recipient 
as  to  give  ground  for  the  notion  that  the  indi- 
viduals to  be  built  into  the  Christian  brother- 
hood are  to  be  as  "so  many  peas  in  a  pod." 
Membership  in  the  body  of  Christ  does  not 
require  likeness  or  equality  on  the  part  of  the 
members.  "We  do  not  have  to  be  twins  in 
order  to  be  brothers." 

The  glory  and  the  strength  of  Christian 
unity  are  in  the  diversity  of  gifts,  talents,  and 
temperaments  represented  in  the  individuals 
making  it  up.  We  are  helped  to  see  this  when 
we  think  in  terms  of  a  living  organism  rather 
than  in  terms  of  a  mechanism.  The  bond  of 
Christian  union  transcends  conventional  diver- 
sities. It  is  inherent  in  the  common  spiritual 
life.  The  divine  nature  of  this  bond  of  love 
makes  it  sufficient  to  hold  the  greatest  diver- 
sities in  harmonious  relations.  The  greater 
148 


FEDERATION 

our  confidence  in  the  divine  nature  of  the 
bond  of  union,  the  less  will  be  our  concern 
about  the  bewildering  variety  of  types  to  be 
united. 

The  unique  opportunity  of  the  church  to-day 
is  to  show  the  world  a  genuine  brotherhood 
composed  of  individuals  differing  widely  in 
their  daily  activities,  viewpoints,  social  cus- 
toms, and  degrees  of  maturity  of  character, 
and  yet  treating  each  other  in  all  respects 
with  brotherly  love.  Such  a  sublime  and 
altogether  worth-while  task  will  not  be  accom- 
plished by  insisting  upon  conformity,  except 
in  the  one  matter  of  loyal  allegiance  to  Jesus 
Christ.  No  man  shall  sit  in  judgment  upon 
another  respecting  the  process  by  which  the 
love  of  Christ  constrains  him  in  the  expression 
of  his  personality.  No  man  shall  be  denied 
the  right  of  declaring  what  he  deems  to  be 
the  truth,  while  he  declares  it  in  the  spirit  and 
manner  of  love. 

The  unmistakable  tendency  of  our  day  is 
to  make  for  a  closer  federation  of  the  forces 
having  common  ends.  The  various  civiliza- 
tions of  the  world  are  drawing  closer  together 
as  they  discover  so  much  that  is  common 
to  all.  The  great  religions  of  the  world  are 
149 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

cultivating  a  hospitality  toward  each  other 
scarcely  dreamed  of  by  the  fathers.  The 
numerous  denominations  of  Christendom  are 
under  conviction  for  schism,  wastefulness,  and 
misrepresentation  of  the  Master.  They  are 
divesting  themselves  of  burdensome  nonessen- 
tials and  are  drawing  much  closer  to  each 
other  as  they  draw  nearer  to  Christ.  K  this 
movement  is  allowed  to  go  forward  patiently 
by  the  method  of  federation,  conserving  the 
substantial  units,  the  progress  will  be  real. 
But  if  we  yield  to  the  demands  of  a  superficial 
enthusiasm  for  a  world  union  of  Christian 
forces  at  a  sacrifice  of  denominational  dis- 
tinctiveness, we  are  in  danger  of  a  haste  that 
makes  waste.  Just  now  an  element  among 
the  laboring  classes  of  the  country  is  furnishing 
an  illustration  of  the  extravagant  rush  toward 
a  goal  that  is  not  to  be  reached  by  a  dash, 
but  requires  the  planting  of  many  depots  of 
supphes,  patient  plodding,  and  watchful  waiting. 
The  advocates  of  organized  labor  have 
toiled  through  the  years  to  form  unions,  brother- 
hoods, and  federations  of  various  classes  of 
workmen,  with  the  result  that  the  laboring 
classes  are  being  heard  in  all  the  councils  of 
the  nation.  Suddenly  there  springs  up  a 
150 


FEDERATION 

movement,  impatient  with  the  procedure  that 
takes  account  of  individuals,  conditions,  and 
circumstances,  and  cries  out  for  immediate 
world-union  of  all  workers.  It  is  as  if  men 
busy  putting  bricks  and  stones  into  distinct 
buildings,  forming  a  city,  should  drop  their 
tools  and  in  wild  frenzy  call  for  a  heaping  of 
all  the  material  indiscriminately  into  one  mean- 
ingless mass;  as  if  the  patient  forgers  of  a 
chain  link  by  link  should  be  set  upon  by  im< 
patient  workmen,  who  should  demand  that 
the  work  be  cut  short  by  forging  the  material 
into  one  big  link  and  be  done  with  it. 

Certain  misguided  enthusiasts,  under  the  spell 
of  an  ideal  of  an  international  unity,  decided 
to  hasten  its  realization  by  melting  the  flags 
of  the  nations.  They  cast  them  one  after 
another  into  a  common  fire.  They  professed 
great  astonishment  that  such  a  "sacramental" 
procedure  should  be  regarded  as  a  punishable 
crime.  Less  crude  citizens  have  pushed  their 
criticisms  of  nationalism  to  an  untenable  degree 
— the  great  God  hath  set  the  solitary  into 
families,  and  into  nations.  The  unity  he 
desires  is  a  highly  organized  unity.  It  is  a 
whole  consisting  of  well-wrought-out  units. 
The  strength  of  this  whole  depends  upon  the 
151 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

completeness  with  which  the  various  smaller 
groups  have  been  able  to  work  out  the  false 
and  to  build  in  the  true. 

The  bewildering  number  and  nature  of 
organizations  in  the  average  church  is  not 
due  to  overorganization,  as  some  have  hastily 
supposed.  It  is  due,  rather,  to  incompleteness 
of  organization.  Probably  some  of  the  organ- 
izations would  cease  to  be  if  the  church  should 
deal  seriously  with  the  matter  of  organization. 
The  sacrifice  would  not  be  so  large,  however, 
as  might  at  first  seem  probable;  for  it  would 
be  found  advisable  to  correlate  most  of  the 
existing  organizations,  providing  for  a  central 
directorate  to  which  the  separate  organizations 
would  be  related  as  cooperating  departments. 
For  example,  we  are  finding  a  growing  senti- 
ment in  favor  of  unifying  the  work  now  carried 
on  by  three  or  four  unrelated  organizations 
of  women.  Very  little  modification  of  the 
existing  societies  would  be  required  in  order 
to  effect  a  federation  that  would  secure  co- 
operation, prevent  duplication,  and  in  many 
respects  make  for  efficiency. 

The  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  took  initial  steps  toward  a 
plan  for  federating  the  young  people's  work 
15^ 


FEDERATION 

as  represented  now  by  the  Epworth  League, 
the  Sunday  school,  and  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion. This  action  did  not  contemplate  inter- 
fering with  the  integrity  of  any  one  of  these 
bodies,  but  was  intended  as  a  step  toward 
effective  cooperation. 

The  action  taken  by  the  same  body  placing 
the  various  forms  of  men's  organizations  under 
the  supervision  of  the  Board  of  Sunday  Schools 
is  another  instance  of  the  movement  toward 
federation.  We  are  learning  that  local  churches 
must  take  the  initiative  in  organizing  their 
forces,  while  connectional  supervision  must  take 
account  of  necessary  variation.  The  hopeful 
feature  in  the  plan  for  the  unification  of  the 
leading  Methodist  bodies  now  under  consid- 
eration is  the  provision  it  makes  for  the  con- 
servation of  the  essentials  of  each  existing 
body,  while  it  brings  all  parallel  and  duplicating 
agencies  into  economical  correlation. 

The  Federal  Council  of  the  Churches  of 
Christ  in  America  marks  the  high  tide  of 
success  in  the  cooperation  of  the  Protestant 
communions  in  this  country.  Through  this 
organization  thirty  denominations,  representing 
eighteen  millions  of  members,  are  cooperating 
in  promoting  Social  Service,  Peace  and  Arbitra- 
153 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

tion,  Evangelism,  Family  Life,  Country  Life, 
Temperance,  Education,  and  Foreign  Missions. 
The  method  of  work  is  through  commissions. 
Some  of  these  commissions  have  salaried  sec- 
retaries devoting  all  their  time  to  the  concentra- 
tion of  all  the  Christian  forces  upon  the  prob- 
lems that  concern  all  alike.  Cooperation  in 
these  forms  of  service  develops  and  expresses 
a  fine  interchurch  "fellowship  and  catholic 
unity  of  the  Christian  Church." 

The  various  denominations  carry  on  their 
distinctive  work  unhindered.  The  stronger 
they  grow  in  the  completeness  of  their  organ- 
ization and  the  abundance  of  their  resources, 
the  better  it  is  for  the  Federation.  Therefore 
the  advocates  of  the  Federal  Council  encourage 
denominational  integrity.  Before  the  federa- 
tion of  the  churches  can  become  most  effective 
there  must  be  an  extensive  and  thorough 
coordination  of  agencies  within  the  separate 
denominations,  and  within  the  local  churches 
themselves.  One  of  the  results  of  the  Federal 
Council's  work  has  been  to  stimulate  this 
work  of  coordination  within  the  churches. 

In  many  cities  church  federations  are  formed 
and  are  productive  of  excellent  results.  The 
Church  Federation  of  Saint  Louis,  for  example, 
154 


FEDERATION 

includes  one  hundred  and  ten  churches.  It 
publishes  the  following  ten  objects  it  seeks 
to  accomplish. 

"1.  To  express  the  essential  unity  of  the 
churches. 

"2.  To  avoid  duplication  and  destructive 
competition. 

"3.  To  know  the  task  in  Saint  Louis  by 
adequate  study. 

**4.    To  broaden  the  vision  of  church  workers. 

"5.  To  establish  Christian  ideals  in  the  so- 
cial, industrial,  and  political  life  of  Saint 
Louis. 

"6.  To  provide  Christian  work  for  ne- 
glected fields. 

"7.   To  render  service  to  the  community. 

"8.   To  evangelize  the  city. 

"9.   To  serve  and  evangelize  the  unchurched. 

"10.  To  cooperate  in  great  church  and  so- 
cial movements." 

This  method  of  getting  together  is  not 
confined  to  the  cities.  The  churches  in 
small  villages  often  exhibit  the  most  flagrant 
need  of  cooperation.  Experience  admonishes 
these  overchurched  communities  to  beware  of 
the  union  church  that  has  no  afl^liation  with 
a  denominational  body.  Unrelated  union 
155 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

churches  do  not  seem  to  have  the  elements 
of  permanency. 

A  much  better  method  of  relief  in  the  com- 
munities where  too  many  churches  are  alleged 
to  exist,  is  to  make  a  complete  survey  of  the 
entire  community.  Let  the  results  be  frankly 
faced  by  the  denominations  involved.  Those 
having  no  clearly  indicated  field  will  probably 
see  the  advantage  of  putting  their  energy 
elsewhere.  The  withdrawal  will  not  always 
be  the  experience  of  the  same  denomination. 
The  church  buildings  in  small  villages  could 
all  be  used,  even  though  the  number  of  denom- 
inations were  reduced.  The  possibilities  of 
social  and  educational  activities  under  the 
auspices  of  the  modern  church  are  beginning 
to  be  discovered.  Religious  work  is  an  all 
the  week  affair.  One  building  may  be  fitted 
for  worship  alone,  another  for  Sunday  school 
purposes,  another  for  social  and  recreational 
facihties.  In  such  a  way  the  church  would 
indeed  become  the  community  center  and  a 
community  force.  The  existing  salaried  force 
will  not  be  too  large  to  care  for  the  earnest 
work  of  a  federated  movement  of  the  churches 
to  make  religion  the  dominating  consideration 
of  the  community. 

156 


FEDERATION 

The  basis  of  hope  for  a  united  Christendom 
is  in  the  principle  and  method  of  federation,  a 
unity  that  provides  for  necessary  diversity. 
In  this  view  there  is  abundant  room  for  an 
ardent  advocacy  of  denominational  autonomy, 
and  at  the  same  time  a  most  practical  inter- 
denominational cooperation. 

QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  What  is  the  difference  between  federation 

and  amalgamation.^ 

2.  What   is    meant    by    conserving    the   lesser 

units  in  a  large  organization? 

3.  Is  diversity   a  help  or  a  hindrance  to  an 

effective  federation  of  Christian  forces? 

4.  In  what  way  will  better  organization  over- 

come   the    scandal    of   too    many    organ- 
izations? 

5.  What  is  the  aim  of  the  Federal  Council  of 

Churches  of  Christ  in  America? 

6.  What    methods    is    the    Council    using    for 

realizing  its  aims? 


167 


CHAPTER  XII 

The  country  church  should  be  a  community 
center.  There  is  no  other  institution  universal 
among  farmers  and  freely  supported. — W,  H. 
Wilson. 

Young  gentlemen,  when  you  go  to  preach  in 
the  city  take  along  your  best  coat;  but  when  you 
go  to  the  country  take  your  best  sermon. — John 
A.  Broadus. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  ADULT  BIBLE  CLASS  IN  THE 
COUNTRY  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

No  phase  of  church  work  is  more  persistently 
in  the  consciousness  of  Christian  people  to-day 
than  the  needs  and  possibilities  of  the  country 
church. 

There  is  a  great  danger  that  the  thorough- 
going discussion  of  the  so-called  rural  problem 
by  specialists  may  have  a  tendency  to  arrest 
the  activities  of  the  country  pastors,  pending 
the  final  report  of  the  specialists.  The  patient 
may  conclude  that  he  should  quit  work  until 
the  exact  nature  of  his  trouble  is  determined 
and  the  proper  remedy  prescribed. 

If  such  an  attitude  should  be  assumed,  it 
would  be  very  unfortunate  indeed,  for  no 
amount  of  diagnosing  will  go  as  far  toward 
making  the  country  church  what  it  ought  to 
be  as  the  increasing  of  its  vitality  and  the 
intensifying  of  its  zeal  will  do.  The  student 
of  such  a  situation  does  not  ask  for  suspended 
161 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

animation  as  a  condition  favorable  to  study; 
he  asks  for  a  speeding  up  of  all  the  activities 
now  supposed  to  be  in  common  practice  among 
the  country  churches.  Perhaps  in  some  in- 
stances the  need  of  the  country  church  is  not 
a  new  program,  but  a  more  vigorous  carrying 
out  of  the  inherited  order.  In  most  places, 
however,  the  real  trouble  is  bondage  to  a 
traditional  order.  Following  the  program  that 
was  handed  down  from  the  fathers  is  the  line 
of  least  resistance.  Those  who  have  but  little 
time  to  give  to  the  church  are  easily  deceived 
into  thinking  that  the  plant  is  working  to  its 
full  capacity  *and  all  the  results  we  have  a  right 
to  expect  are  surely  accruing. 

Whether  the  need  is  a  new  program,  or  new 
life  put  into  the  old  one,  or  both,  there  are  a 
few  great  matters  that  should  have  our 
attention. 

In  the  first  place,  all  the  life  interests  of  the 
country  people  are  so  interrelated  that  the 
church  must  take  account  of  them  if  it  is  to 
serve  the  people  efficiently.  The  daily  toil, 
the  social  hunger,  the  recreational  need,  the 
school  life,  the  religious  enlistment,  and  the 
steady  moral  growth  all  belong  to  the  program 
of  service  for  the  church  that  is  to  make  good 
162 


IN  THE  COUNTRY  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

in  the  little  country  community  as  surely  as 
in  the  more  congested  center. 

Another  matter  that  has  limited  the  useful- 
ness of  the  country  church  is  the  false  notion 
that  religion  is  for  the  most  part  a  very  solemn 
and  exclusive  business.  The  country  church 
has  been  the  slowest  of  all  churches  to  shake 
o£F  the  tyranny  of  asceticism.  How  often  the 
fathers  felt  that  the  church  and  the  grave- 
yard belonged  together  and  should  be  placed 
as  far  as  possible  from  secular  activities.  In 
many  communities  the  funeral  service  was 
the  most  frequent  service  held  in  the  church. 
The  funeral  type  of  service  dominated  the 
regular  Sunday  meeting  and  the  "protracted 
revival  meeting."  The  solemn  feelings  about 
the  church  produced  by  the  prevailing  use  to 
which  it  was  put  were  defended  by  good  people 
who  mistook  this  solemnity  for  reverence.  It 
is  the  sign  of  a  new  day  that  the  country 
people  are  believing  that  a  truer  mark  of 
reverence  for  the  church  and  religion  is  in 
cleaning  up  the  church  yard,  painting  and 
decorating  the  building,  and  making  it  the 
center  of  community  life.  The  joyous  laughter 
of  youth  is  just  as  appropriate  for  the  church 
yard  as  it  is  for  the  school  yard.  The  old 
163 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

depressing  somberness  that  held  its  tenure  in 
the  name  of  sanctity  has  been  exposed  and 
found  to  be  a  pious  fraud.  During  its  solemn 
reign  religion  was  unnatural.  Christians  were 
often  as  grotesque  in  their  phrases,  tones,  and 
countenances  as  some  people  are  in  their 
costumes. 

The  country  church  is  starting  upon  an  era 
of  large  service  by  refusing  to  rely  upon  any- 
thing less  substantial  than  its  manifest  service 
to  the  whole  life  of  the  community. 

The  Sunday  school  in  the  country  church 
has  suffered  much  from  "militarism."  In 
many  places  "General  Apathy"  controls  the 
situation.  "Live  wires"  are  not  numerous. 
Danger  from  innovations  is  not  imminent. 
Something  must  be  put  into  such  schools  that 
will  cause  an  uprising.  The  tyranny  of  apathy 
must  be  broken. 

In  other  places  the  commanding  general  is 
"Can't  Be  Done."  How  often  we  meet  the 
paralyzing  effects  of  pessimism.  The  pastor 
or  superintendent  will  listen  wistfully  to  sug- 
gestions for  improvement  in  the  Sunday  school 
organization  or  program,  and  show  faint  but 
unmistakable  signs  of  favorable  impression,  but 
on  being  pressed  to  act  upon  the  suggestions 
I64i 


IN  THE  COUNTRY  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

will  supinely  surrender  to  the  frowning  diffi- 
culties, with  the  fatal  finality,  "It  can't  be 
done." 

Dr.  Abel  Stevens,  the  well-known  historian 
of  Methodism,  once  remarked  that  what  the 
church  needed  most  was  "sublime  audacity." 
Certainly  that  commodity  would  transform 
many  a  country  Sunday  school  from  a  state 
of  arrested  development  to  a  high  degree  of 
efficiency  as  an  agency  of  religious  education. 
We  need  more  pastors  and  Sunday  school 
superintendents  in  the  rural  communities  with 
initiative  and  patient  persistence.  Wherever 
such  have  set  themselves  to  the  task  of  making 
the  Sunday  school  and  church  a  community 
force,  they  have  found  the  community  ready 
to  respond  heartily. 

One  of  the  most  difficult  barriers  to  the 
development  of  the  country  Sunday  school, 
though  by  no  means  limited  to  that  field,  is 
"general  complacency."  A  very  small  amount 
of  success  will  satisfy  some  people  abundantly. 
The  fact  that  the  Sunday  school  attendance 
is  not  perceptibly  smaller  than  it  was  the  pre- 
vious year  gives  satisfaction  to  a  certain  type 
of  superintendent.  His  scrutiny  of  the  school 
may  not  be  careful  enough  to  see  that  while 
165 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

the  number  attending  may  be  about  the  same, 
the  members  are  different,  showing  that  the 
losses  for  one  reason  or  another  should  make 
complacency  impossible.  The  good  is  no  longer 
good  when  it  becomes  a  barrier  to  the  best. 

Nothing  has  been  introduced  into  the  coun- 
try Sunday  school  in  recent  years  that  has 
given  the  school  such  a  large  place  in  the  con- 
sciousness and  favorable  interest  of  the  com- 
munity as  the  Organized  Adult  Bible  Class. 
The  presence  of  the  parents,  not  as  spectators 
but  as  participants  in  the  life  of  the  school 
has  given  a  new  spirit  to  the  entire  school. 
The  example  set  by  the  parents  to  the  children 
and  youth  is  not  only  wholesome  and  stim- 
ulating, but  the  cooperation  of  the  home  with 
the  Sunday  school  in  the  training  of  the  chil- 
dren is  noticeably  improved. 

The  improved  roads,  the  numerous  automo- 
biles, and  the  telephone  have  conspired  to 
make  the  attendance  of  adults  upon  the  coun- 
try Sunday  school  more  common  than  formerly. 
Officers  and  teachers  can  call  up  the  members 
on  the  telephone  and  urge  them  to  come  and 
to  "call  by"  and  bring  a  neighbor  who  has  no 
conveyance. 

The  social  fellowship  fostered  by  the  Organ- 
166 


IN  THE  COUNTRY  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

ized  Bible  Class  in  the  sparsely  settled  com- 
munities is  a  value  to  the  entire  life  of  the 
neighborhood  that  can  scarcely  be  exaggerated. 
Formerly  the  annual  protracted  meeting  and 
the  annual  camp  meeting  were  the  chief  re- 
ligious occasions  for  bringing  the  neighbors 
together.  Being  only  occasional  gatherings, 
they  did  not  meet  adequately  the  social  and 
religious  needs  of  the  people.  Now  the  Sunday 
school,  providing  for  the  whole  range  of  life, 
is  helping  to  make  the  church  a  neighborhood 
center  as  often  as  once  a  week  at  least.  The 
more  intimately  the  neighbors  mingle  in  a 
social  way  in  the  atmosphere  of  a  religious 
service,  the  more  readily  they  will  respond  to 
the  appeals  of  the  Christian  life  and  to  the 
calls  for  united  Christian  service. 

Another  important  service  rendered  by  the 
adults  in  the  Sunday  school  is  the  improve- 
ment of  the  building  and  equipment  for  school 
purposes.  When  the  men  and  women  of  the 
community  become  a  part  of  the  Sunday  school, 
they  are  more  easily  impressed  with  the  need 
of  more  and  better  equipment.  The  reports 
that  come  from  the  Adult  Classes  in  the  coun- 
try places  show  a  remarkable  activity  in 
giving  to  church  improvement,  building  on 
167 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

rooms  for  Sunday  school  purposes,  and  general 
improvement  of  the  church  premises. 

The  Adult  Bible  Class  is  also  well  adapted 
to  provide  for  the  subpastoral  supervision 
which  the  Wesleyan  Class  system  used  to 
carry  on.  The  sick  are  visited,  the  unfortunate 
and  needy  are  helped,  and  the  tempted  are 
held  to  the  faith  by  friendly  interest.  In  this 
connection  it  should  be  said  that  personal  and 
team  evangelism  find  no  better  agency  in  the 
country  community  than  the  adults  who 
regularly  attend  the  Sunday  school.  The 
possibility  of  this  form  of  service  is  only  begin- 
ning to  dawn  upon  the  leaders  of  our  rural 
work.  The  habit  of  relying  upon  the  occasional 
revival  meeting  for  recruiting  the  Kingdom 
must  not  stand  in  the  way  of  continuous 
evangelism.  The  Bible  Class  session  and  fel- 
lowship furnish  a  convenient  and  attractive 
basis  of  appeal  for  the  personal  worker  who 
would  finally  win  his  unconverted  friend  to 
Christ.  Coming  into  membership  of  the  Bible 
Class  is  a  confession  of  an  attitude  of  interest 
in  the  claims  of  religion,  the  announcement  of 
a  willingness  to  consider  the  persuasion  of  the 
spokesman  for  Christ.  More  recruits  for  the 
kingdom  of  God  would  come  through  the  Bible 
168 


IN  THE  COUNTRY  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

Class  if  the  members  would  accustom  them- 
selves to  think  of  the  class  as  primarily  an 
evangelistic  agency. 

The  Organized  Bible  Class  is  coming  to  be 
used  as  a  bond  between  the  church  in  the 
country  and  the  church  in  the  city.  The  re- 
sources of  one  may  be  administered  by  the 
other.  The  classes  in  the  city  are  in  the  midst 
of  the  struggling  poor  and  the  victims  of 
wasting  disease.  How  much  good  these  classes 
may  do  if  they  are  supplied  with  the  fresh 
produce  within  easy  reach  of  the  classes  in  the 
country.  The  city  class  may  become  the  dis- 
tributing agent  for  the  country  class.  On  the 
other  hand  it  often  happens  that  unusual 
talent  is  represented  in  the  membership  of  a 
city  class.  The  city  is  usually  oversupplied 
with  musical  and  literary  entertainments,  while 
the  country  even  to-day  is  undersupplied. 
What  a  fine  fraternal  service  it  is  for  the  class 
in  the  city  to  provide  an  entertainment  in  the 
country  under  the  auspices  of  the  class  that 
furnishes  wholesome  supplies  for  the  needy  in 
the  city.  In  these  days  of  automobiles  and 
interurban  cars  such  a  reciprocity  is  easily 
practicable.  Dr.  Frank  Yeigh,  of  Toronto, 
Canada,  gives  an  example  of  this  cooperation 
169 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

between  the  city  class  and  the  country  class 
in  a  communication  to  the  Adult  Bible  Class 
Monthly.  He  says:  "The  rural  class  collected 
during  the  fall  a  carload  of  fruit  and  vegetables, 
which  was  donated  and  sent  to  the  city  class. 
The  latter  paid  the  freight  and  distributed  the 
material  to  hundreds  of  needy  people  in  the 
city.  The  country  class  asked  to  be  permitted 
to  send  benefactions  through  the  city  class  all 
through  the  year,  and  at  Christmas  time  bags 
of  good  things  and  bundles  of  clothing  came 
from  these  generous  Bible  Class  men  and 
women  out  in  the  country." 

The  greatest  value  in  these  exchanges  of 
service  is  not  in  the  tangible  blessings  con- 
ferred, but  in  the  fellowship  of  a  better  under- 
standing of  each  other's  problems,  and  the 
broadened  and  deepened  Christian  sympathy 
developed  by  frequent  contact. 

It  all  too  frequently  happens  that  the  little 
company  of  devoted  people  who  are  sustaining 
a  Sunday  school  in  a  country  place  do  not  know 
and  can  hardly  be  made  to  believe  that  there 
are  enough  people  within  reach  of  the  Sunday 
school  to  crowd  the  capacity  of  the  building. 
In  recent  years  careful  surveys  have  been  made 
in  such  communities  with  astonishing  results. 
170 


IN  THE  COUNTRY  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

Here  is  the  substance  of  one  reported  by  the 
Rev.  Hugh  H.  Hudson  at  a  Rural  Life  Con- 
ference held  at  the  University  of  Virginia: 
"At  a  village  on  the  Southern  Railway  there 
was  found  a  little  church  of  fifteen  members 
— the  only  one  in  the  community.  The  Sunday 
school  had  been  allowed  to  die.  A  distance  of 
two  miles  was  decided  upon  for  the  survey. 
Within  those  two  miles  there  were  found  fifty- 
nine  families  in  which  there  were  seventy-two 
men,  one  hundred  and  twenty-two  women, 
young  women,  boys  and  girls,  besides  nineteen 
for  the  Cradle  Roll.  Two  hundred  and  thirteen 
people  within  two  miles,  yet  no  Sunday  school 
at  all!"  It  is  into  such  situations  as  this  that 
the  Organized  Bible  Class  may  be  introduced 
with  such  good  results,  as  the  following  exam- 
ple will  show. 

A  college  student  was  sent  to  a  certain  cir- 
cuit in  which  there  was  an  abandoned  church. 
The  homes  of  the  people  in  that  community 
were  few  and  widely  scattered.  The  only 
religious  service  maintained  in  that  neighbor- 
hood was  a  small  Sunday  school.  The  super- 
intendent of  that  school  had  been  deeply  im- 
pressed with  the  possibilities  of  an  Organized 
Men's  Class.  He  secured  by  personal  canvass 
171 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

the  consent  of  twenty  men  to  join  such  an 
organization.  Officers  were  elected  and  the 
realization  of  the  hopes  came  thick  and  fast. 
The  interest  of  the  men  carried  with  it  the 
interest  of  entire  families.  The  women  reasoned 
naturally  that  if  an  Organized  Class  was  good 
for  the  men,  it  ought  to  be  good  for  them,  so 
they  organized.  The  church  was  resuscitated, 
and  the  Sunday  school  and  congregation  grew 
rapidly.  During  the  following  winter,  when 
special  revival  services  were  conducted,  a 
number  of  the  men  who  began  by  joining  the 
class  continued  by  accepting  Christ  and  uniting 
with  the  church.  The  pastor  reporting  this 
interesting  example  of  a  country  Bible  Class  in 
the  Sunday  School  Journal  declares  that  the 
work  has  been  growing  steadily  for  three  years, 
during  which  time  the  membership  of  the 
church  has  increased  nearly  one  hundred  per 
cent.  He  credits  the  Organized  Bible  Class 
with  this  fine  success. 

QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  What  is  the  country  church  problem? 

2.  What  should   be  the  scope  of  the  service 

rendered  by  the  church  to  the  country 
community? 

172 


IN  THE  COUNTRY  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

3.  How  should  a  country  Sunday  school  go 

about  meeting  its  opportunity? 

4.  What  part  in  the  program  may  the  Organ- 

ized Adult  Bible  Class  take? 

5.  How  may  the  Bible  Classes  in  the  country 

cooperate  with  those  of  the  city  Sunday 
schools? 


173 


CHAPTER  XIII 

The  very  basis  of  all  true  efficiency  is  to  be  found 
in  the  inner  life.  It  must  be  calmed  and  steadied 
and  mastered  if  the  outer  life  is  to  be  one  of  power. 
The  conquest  of  the  life  within  is  the  basis  of  all 
other  human  achievement. — Lynn  Harold  Hough. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

TESTING  THE  BIBLE  CLASS  FOR 
EFFICIENCY 

Nothing  short  of  worthy  results  will  insure 
permanency  for  the  Adult  Bible  Class  Move- 
ment in  the  Sunday  school.  The  number  of 
classes  organized  and  enrolled  may  increase  very 
rapidly,  great  gatherings  of  enthusiastic  mem- 
bers may  assemble  in  the  great  centers  and 
march  with  banners,  and  hear  spell-binding 
messages;  contests  may  be  held  for  increased 
enrollment  that  will  awaken  much  interest  and 
secure  wide  publicity.  All  these  things  and 
more  like  them  may  come  to  pass  and  not 
prove  the  efficiency  of  the  Bible  Class  as  an 
agency  for  increasing  and  enhancing  character 
values. 

There  is  no  commodity  for  which  the  world 
is  in  so  great  need  to-day  as  staunch  Christian 
character.  The  Christian  Church  represents 
organized  work  for  Christian  character.  It  is 
no  depreciation  of  the  church  to  say  that  it 
is  one  of  the  great  character  plants  of  the 
177 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

world.  All  human  life  is  its  resources.  The 
power  of  God  revealed  in  the  gospel  of  Christ 
is  its  transmuting  force.  The  Christian  men  and 
women  are  the  media  through  which  this  force 
gets  to  the  character  resources.  The  test  then 
of  an  organization  within  the  church  must  be 
the  test  of  character  values  produced. 

In  the  light  of  this  interpretation  of  the 
church's  mission  let  us  examine  the  Adult 
Bible  Class. 

What  is  it  doing  for  the  intellectual  possi- 
bilities of  its  members  .f^  The  closest  observers 
of  Adult  Bible  Classes  report  that  there  is  very 
little  study  given  to  the  lesson  by  adults.  For 
the  most  part  these  classes  of  men  and  women 
assemble  at  the  Sunday  school  hour  with  no 
recently  acquired  knowledge  of  the  lesson  to 
be  discussed.  Accepting  this  report  as  fairly 
accurate,  should  we  not  say  at  once  that  the 
Bible  Class  as  a  means  to  intellectual  enrich- 
ment and  training  is  a  failure.^  Such  a  con- 
clusion would  be  too  hasty.  The  members  of 
the  Adult  Classes  have  been  receiving  bits  of 
knowledge  here  and  there  through  years  of 
observing,  general  reading,  listening,  and  active 
living.  The  average  lesson  material  that  may 
be  presented  to  them  on  any  given  Sunday 
178 


TESTING  FOR  EFFICIENCY 

will  not  be  totally  strange  to  many  of  them. 
It  will  bear  the  marks  of  having  done  previous 
service.  The  teacher  who  knows  this  will  not 
require  much  time  in  getting  the  main  points 
before  his  class.  A  wise  educator  has  said  that 
mature  people  do  not  need  to  be  taught  as 
much  as  they  need  to  be  reminded.  The  in- 
tellectual value  of  the  class  period  will  be  in 
the  stimulus  to  thinking,  the  repeated  chal- 
lenges to  the  effort  to  formulate  a  suitable 
expression  of  ideas,  the  awakening  of  sugges- 
tions that  will  persist  in  their  ministry  to  the 
mind  all  through  the  week.  It  is  a  very  com- 
mon experience  for  members  of  an  Adult 
Bible  Class  to  be  startled  along  about  Wednes- 
day by  a  vigorous  idea  that  found  entrance 
at  the  Bible  Class  period  the  previous  Sunday. 
A  very  busy  traveling  man  was  intellectually 
made  over  by  attending  a  Bible  Class.  He  had 
long  since  become  immune  to  the  appeals  to 
read  thought-provoking  books.  What  leisure 
he  had  at  home  was  given  to  the  superficial 
entertainments  that  made  their  appeal  chiefly 
to  the  senses.  He  was  induced  to  attend  a 
men's  Bible  Class.  The  class  was  discussing 
the  thrilling  experiences  of  the  apostle  Paul 
as  he  went  upon  his  missionary  journeys. 
179 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

This  traveling  man  suddenly  became  interested 
in  the  traveling  man  of  old.  His  family  was 
amazed  and  gratified  to  find  him  stocking  up 
the  home  with  maps  and  books  relating  to 
the  regions  over  which  Paul  traveled,  and  the 
customs  that  obtained  in  those  days. 

Another  busy  layman  with  large  manufactur- 
ing interests  upon  him  attended  the  Bible 
Class  with  nothing  but  a  passing  interest  until 
one  day  the  wise  teacher  asked  him  to  take  a 
few  minutes  the  following  Sunday  to  speak  to 
the  class  upon  John  Wesley  as  a  leader  of  men. 
From  that  day  the  man  began  a  thorough 
study  of  the  life  and  ministry  of  John  Wesley. 
He  traveled  to  the  land  and  haunts  of  the 
great  man,  he  filled  his  home  with  books  and 
curios  relating  to  John  W^esley.  He  was  fre- 
quently called  upon  to  speak  upon  some  subject 
pertaining  to  Wesley.  Instances  of  this  sort 
might  be  multipHed  without  number.  The 
adult  mind  is  not  a  blank,  even  though  it  is 
not  college-trained.  Conditions  are  present  in 
the  average  Adult  Class  that  require  but  a 
simple  touch  either  from  the  teacher's  word 
or  the  chance  remark  of  a  member  to  start 
great  intellectual  activity. 

Is  the  Adult  Bible  Class  measuring  up  to  its 
180 


TESTING  FOR  EFFICIENCY 

social  and  fraternal  opportunity?     Those  who 
are  familiar  with  the  purposes  out  of  which 
the    modern    Adult    Bible    Class    movement 
sprang   will   agree   that   it   was   expected   that 
Bible  Classes  should  provide  for  meetings  at 
which  social  and  recreational  activities  should 
abound.     Men  and  women  were  seeking  their 
social  life  in  groups  unrelated  to  the  church. 
They  were  finding  their  main  opportunities  for 
service  activities  in  philanthropic  and  fraternal 
movements    that   left   little   of   their   time   or 
energy  for  the  program  of  the  church.     The 
church  became  aware  of  the  vital  relation  be- 
tween social  hunger  and  wholesome  spirituality. 
The  social   satisfactions   are   best   where  they 
keep  close  to  the  consciousness  of  God's  pres- 
ence,  and   the  spirituality  that  is  thoroughly 
hospitable  to  the  rights  of  the  social  instinct 
IS    freest    from    asceticism.      Spirituality    and 
sociability    are    not    antithetical,    they    belong 
together.      The   church   is    also    becoming   in- 
creasingly aware  of  the  fraternal  service  involved 
in  the  Christian  religion.     The  old  fear  that 
"good  works"  might  damage  the  doctrine  of 
salvation    by    faith    was    not    well    grounded. 
When  that  fear  had  its  perfect  work  it  resulted 
m  a  divorce  of  religion  from  morality.    It  was 
181 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

disastrous  to  both.  Religion  resides  in  life, 
and  it  demands  practical  love  to  our  neighbor 
as  the  guarantee  of  the  reality  of  our  love  to 
God.  An  extended  study  of  the  Adult  Bible 
Classes  reveals  the  gratifying  fact  that  they 
are  succeeding  in  bringing  people  together  for 
social  fellowship  in  such  a  way  as  to  relieve 
religion  of  the  gloom  and  unnaturalness  of 
asceticism.  No  less  certain  is  it  that  the 
members  of  the  Bible  Classes  are  mindful  of 
the  opportunities  to  do  deeds  of  mercy  and 
help.  The  sick  and  the  sorrowing  are  visited 
and  materially  helped;  the  institutions  for  the 
unfortunates  find  practical  cooperation  at  the 
hands  of  the  Bible  Classes.  Many  a  Deaconess 
Home,  hospital,  and  orphanage  can  testify  of 
the  supplies  for  kitchen  or  dormitory  that  have 
come  from  Bible  Classes.  It  is  a  great  day  for 
religion  when  men  and  women  meet  on  Sunday 
to  study  the  truth  and  then  go  forth  to  practice 
it  through  the  week. 

The  situation  to-day  no  longer  presents  the 
church  as  merely  the  doctrinal  defender  of  the 
faith,  while  the  social  and  fraternal  orders 
outside  take  the  lead  in  ministering  to  needy 
humanity.  On  the  contrary,  the  church  has 
learned  that  the  best  defense  is  a  vigorous 
1852 


TESTING  FOR  EFFICIENCY 

offensive  campaign.  She  is  willing  to  believe 
that  the  best  doctrinal  statements  come  out 
of  a  rich  practice  of  the  virtues  of  religion. 
The  church  is  leading  the  forces  that  would  go 
back  of  the  distress  of  mankind  to  the  physical, 
social,  and  economic  causes  and  would  remove 
the  causes.  Martyrdom  may  continue  to  exalt 
the  virtues  of  the  martyr,  but  in  most  cases 
it  is  a  reflection  upon  the  supine  attitude  of 
the  church  that  regards  with  complacency  the 
social  conditions  that  produce  martyrs. 

Society  to-day  is  highly  organized.  The  life 
that  most  needs  helping  is  found  in  various 
forms  of  organization.  There  are  organized 
crime,  and  organized  vice,  and  organized  folly. 
Christian  helpers  are  using  excellent  judgment 
in  multiplying  their  power  by  organizing  to 
learn  and  to  serve.  An  important  test  of  the 
Bible  Class  is  its  community  force.  How 
effectively  do  these  groups  cooperate  with  all 
the  other  agencies  in  the  community  that  are 
building  up  character.?  How  strong  is  the 
impact  they  are  able  to  make  for  the  over- 
throw of  the  destructive  agencies  in  the  com- 
munity.? Broad  minded  and  yet  deeply 
thoughtful  students  of  the  movements  of  our 
day  for  social  betterment  entertain  grave  fears 
183 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

that  many  of  these  organized  attempts  to  save 
society  are  fatally  weak  in  that  they  give  little 
or  no  place  to  God  in  their  programs.  The 
social  maladies  are  so  deepseated  that  any 
substantial  progress  toward  their  cure  must 
have  a  simple  unapologetic  reliance  upon  God. 
It  is  a  tragedy  for  talented,  well-meaning  people 
to  invest  money,  leisure,  and  some  energy  at  a 
task  that  can  never  be  achieved  until  God 
forms  and  reforms  human  motives  and  moral 
fiber.  Society  needs  more  than  tolerable  con- 
ditions; it  must  have  men  and  women  who 
in  giving  themselves  give  God.  The  Bible 
Class  has  come  to  the  kingdom  to  help  put 
the  divine  sufficiency  into  the  humanitarian 
inadequacy.  Already  we  may  note  signs  that 
very  active  forces  are  seeing  that  it  is  clear 
gain  to  wait  on  the  Lord  until  they  are  endued 
with  power. 

If  the  Bible  Classes  succeed  in  enlisting 
large  numbers  of  men  and  women  who  have 
been  aloof  from  religion,  if  they  improve  the 
religious  conceptions  and  deepen  the  religious 
passions  of  their  members,  and  if  they  help 
to  win  the  leadership  in  social  service  for  God, 
we  may  well  credit  them  with  a  large  degree 
of  efficiency.  We  believe  that  many  of  them 
184 


TESTING  FOR  EFFICIENCY 

are  able  to  meet  the  rigorous  test  of  worthy 
results. 


QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  What   kind    of   values    should   be   expected 

from  the  work  of  the  Adult  Bible  Class? 

2.  To  what  extent  may  the  Bible  Class  produce 

intellectual  awakening? 

3.  How  may  the  Organized  Bible  Class  serve 

the  social  needs  of  its  members? 

4.  What  is  the  nature  of  the  fraternal  needs 

that  Bible  Classes  may  serve? 

5.  Distinguish  between  service  rendered  by  in- 

dividuals and  that  undertaken  in  organ- 
ized capacity. 


185 


CHAPTER  XIV 

From  tender  childhood's  helplessness. 

From  woman's  grief,  man's  burdened  toil, 

From  famished  souls,  from  sorrow's  stress. 
Thy  heart  has  never  known  recoil. 

— Frank  Mason  North. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
THE  HOME  DEPARTMENT 

During  the  rapid  development  out  of  which 
the  modern  Sunday  school  has  come  the  arrival 
of  the  Home  Department  was  one  of  the  most 
significant  features  that  appeared. 

The  more  clearly  the  Sunday  school  leaders 
saw  the  educational  possibilities  of  the  Sunday 
school,  the  more  deeply  impressed  were  they 
that  the  home  must  be  brought  into  vital 
cooperation  with  the  Sunday  school.  The 
Home  Department  was  the  deliberate  answer 
to  this  conviction. 

During  the  years  that  Sunday  schools  have 
been  operating  Home  Departments  various 
modifications  and  adjustments  have  been  made. 
It  is  to  be  hoped  that  this  flexibility,  together 
with  the  spirit  of  progress,  may  continue  to 
mark  the  Home  Department  as  it  seeks  to 
relate  every  home  interest  to  the  mission  of 
the  Sunday  school. 

Before  the  adult  attendance  at  the  Sunday 
school  became  such  a  notable  success  the  Home 
189 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

Department  enrolled  a  great  many  able-bodied 
adults  on  the  ground  that  since  they  did  not 
care  to  attend  the  Sunday  school,  they  might 
at  least  show  some  degree  of  interest  by  con- 
senting to  study  the  Sunday  school  lesson  at 
home,  and  to  make  an  occasional  contribution 
to  the  expenses  of  the  school.  The  Home 
Department  was  perfectly  willing  to  go  more 
than  half  way  with  these  members,  for  the 
lesson  helps  were  delivered  to  them  and  their 
offerings  were  carried  to  the  school  for  them. 
Undoubtedly,  this  interest  in  parents  and  other 
adults  by  the  Home  Department  induced  many 
of  them  to  become  regular  members  of  the 
Organized  Adult  Classes.  Most  able-bodied 
people,  however,  prefer  to  be  listed  with  the 
fighting  force  rather  than  with  the  wounded  or 
missing.  The  growing  success  of  the  Organized 
Bible  Class  movement  admonished  the  leaders 
to  adjust  the  bounds  of  the  Home  Depart- 
ment field.  Inasmuch  as  most  of  the  members 
of  the  Home  Department  are  adults,  it  seemed 
advisable  to  classify  the  work  of  the  Home 
Department  with  the  adult  division  of  the 
Sunday  school,  and  to  provide  for  the  closest 
kind  of  cooperation  between  the  Organized 
Adult  Classes  and  the  oflBcers  of  the  Home 
190 


THE  HOME  DEPARTMENT 

Department.  The  result  is  seen  in  the  experi- 
ences of  many  schools  where  the  Home  Visitors 
are  mainly  furnished  by  the  Adult  Classes,  and 
where  many  new  members  are  brought  into 
the  Adult  Classes  by  the  personal  persuasion 
of  the  representatives  of  the  Home  Department. 
There  are  at  least  two  distinct  classes  of 
individuals  who  must  be  ministered  to  by  the 
Sunday  school  outside  of  its  regular  Sunday 
sessions — those  who  are  called  the  "shut-ins,'* 
who  by  the  infirmities  of  age,  illness,  or  the 
care  of  infants,  cannot  attend  the  sessions  of 
the  Sunday  school;  and  those  who  are  called 
the  "shut-outs,"  whose  Sunday  cannot  be  the 
same  as  that  of  the  main  portion  of  the  com- 
munity. They  serve  as  nurses,  domestic  ser- 
vants, firemen,  policemen,  motor  men,  con- 
ductors, and  other  industrial  workers.  These 
two  classes  must  furnish  the  Home  Depart- 
ment its  direct  opportunity.  If  this  were  all 
that  the  Home  Department  should  be  expected 
to  do,  it  is  a  large  enough  service  to  challenge 
any  Sunday  school  to  provide  adequately  for 
it.  Who  that  has  ever  experienced  the  limita- 
tions of  physical  infirmity  will  fail  to  magnify 
the  service  that  brings  the  spirit  and  vision 
of  the  modern  Sunday  school  into  the  life  of 
191 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

the  "shut-in,"  and  carries  back  to  the  Sunday 
school  the  heartening  messages  from  the  pa- 
tient, trustful,  grateful  sufferers  for  God,  whose 
hearts  sing: 

"No  chance  hath  brought  this  ill  to  me, 
*Tis  His  sweet  will,  so  let  it  be. 
There  is  a  need,  be  for  each  pain. 
And  He  will,  one  day,  make  it  plain 
That  earthly  loss  is  heavenly  gain." 

The  martyr  spirit  has  a  much  wider  influence 
than  that  exerted  by  the  heroic  servants  who 
have  met  with  tragic  deaths  in  some  exciting 
crisis.  It  means  much  to  a  Sunday  school 
abounding  with  the  enthusiasm  of  youth  and 
the  vigor  of  health  to  have  within  its  fellow- 
ship those  who,  like  the  candle,  are  consumed 
as  they  give  their  light. 

The  Adult  Bible  Classes  are  cooperating  with 
the  Home  Department  in  many  places,  by 
making  provision  for  Bible  Classes  composed 
of  those  who  cannot  attend  the  Sunday  ses- 
sions. In  one  place  a  man  attends  his  Bible 
Class  as  an  attentive  member,  and  at  the  close 
of  the  session  goes  to  a  nearby  engine  house 
and  teaches  the  lesson  to  a  group  of  firemen, 
who  must  remain  on  duty  as  public  servants, 
192 


THE  HOME  DEPARTMENT 

but  who  are  eager  for  this  touch  of  the  religious 
forces  of  the  church.  The  service  rendered 
these  Sunday  toilers  is  not  confined  to  Bible 
study.  Social  occasions  are  arranged  where 
good  fellowship  with  people  of  lofty  ideals 
refreshes  the  men  who  are  confined  to  a  life 
of  routine.  The  isolation  of  place  and  task, 
which  is  the  lot  of  many  people  in  every  com- 
munity, must  be  combated  by  the  social  and 
fraternal  ministry  of  the  church  if  the  benefits 
of  religion  are  to  get  by  the  barriers  raised  by 
modern  life. 

In  addition  to  this  direct  service  to  the  people 
who  cannot  attend  the  Sunday  school  sessions, 
the  Home  Department  must  consider  the 
efficiency  of  the  home  as  an  institution.  It  is 
a  far-seeing  and  a  true-seeing  Sunday  school 
that  recognizes  the  fact  that  the  home  exerts 
a  mightier  influence  upon  the  life  of  child- 
hood and  youth  than  any  other  agency.  There- 
fore the  Sunday  school  as  a  community 
institution  must  consider  the  possibility  of 
helping  the  homes  of  the  community  to  be 
better  in  all  that  relates  to  their  religious 
influence.  Parents  must  have  more  attention 
and  more  help  from  the  Sunday  school  than  it 
is  possible  to  give  them  in  "parents'  classes" 
193 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

on  Sunday.  The  Home  Department  visitors 
must  be  trained  to  meet  in  a  tactful  and  efficient 
way  the  opportunities  their  visits  afford  to 
help  the  parents  in  relating  the  home  life  to 
its  religious  duties  and  privileges. 

In  common  with  many  other  features  of  the 
Sunday  school  organization  the  Home  Depart- 
ment has  suffered  from  superficialisin.  Its 
advocates  have  grown  restless  over  the  fact 
that  its  mission  did  not  afford  enough  publicity. 
They  were  sure  that  it  was  meeting  a  long- 
neglected  need,  but  its  service  was  so  unassum- 
ing that  conventions  and  publications  failed 
to  give  it  the  due  proportion  of  exploitation. 
Under  the  exhilarating  spell  of  such  enthusi- 
astic representation  as  marks  many  great 
conventions,  those  appointed  to  promote  the 
Home  Department  have  encouraged  methods 
that  seem  to  put  statistics  above  everything 
else.  Large  enrollments  of  all  sorts  of  people 
have  been  run  up,  certificates,  banners,  con- 
tests, and  other  devices  have  been  called  into 
requisition  to  encourage  the  increase  in  Home 
Department  membership.  This  membership 
has  added  to  the  total  enrollment  of  the  school. 
Reports  at  conventions  and  in  church  papers 
and  year  books  have  indicated  perfectly  enor- 
194 


THE  HOME  DEPARTMENT 

mous  schools,  where  the  actual  attendance 
has  been  only  ordinary.  Investigation  has 
sometimes  shown  that  many  of  the  members 
of  the  Home  Department  had  only  a  faint 
consciousness,  if  any,  of  being  at  all  related  to 
the  Sunday  school. 

The  time  has  fully  arrived  when  the  Home 
Department  must  have  a  definite  task,  and 
test  itself  by  the  standards  of  character  values. 

Every  Sunday  school  should  make  a  careful 
canvass  of  the  people  in  its  community  who 
for  one  reason  or  another  cannot  possibly  attend 
Sunday  school.  These  are  the  field  for  the 
Home  Department.  A  capable  interested  super- 
intendent and  a  dependable  secretary  should 
be  selected  for  the  Home  Department.  The 
Adult  Classes  should  rally  to  the  support  of 
this  undertaking,  furnishing  visitors,  and  help- 
ing in  the  social  and  evangelistic  activities  this 
peculiar  field  calls  for.  The  visitors  from  this 
department  must  be  more  than  the  distributors 
of  lesson  helps  and  the  collectors  of  offering 
envelopes.  They  must  make  the  members  of 
the  Home  Department  feel  that  although  they 
are  not  present  in  the  Sunday  school  session, 
they  are  a  real  part  of  its  life.  The  program 
of  the  Home  Department  may  be  modified 
195 


ADULTS  IN  THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL 

by  the  coming  of  the  Adult  Bible  Class  move- 
ment, but  its  opportunity  was  never  more 
inviting  and  insistent  than  it  is  to-day. 

QUESTIONS  FOR  DISCUSSION 

1.  What  is  the  legitimate  aim  of  the  Home 

Department  of  the  Sunday  school? 

2.  How  has  the  growth  of  the  Adult  Depart- 

ment affected  the  Home  Department? 

3.  What  important  service  may  Home  Depart- 

ment visitors  render? 

4.  How  may  Organized  Classes  help  the  Home 

Department? 

5.  What  organization  is  necessary  for  a  suc- 

cessful Home  Department? 


196 


DATE  DUE 

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